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Our 

Presidents' Mothers, Wives 

AND Daughters 



AND 



Some Washington Sermons 



[THIRD EDITION 



REV. Thomas Nelson Haskell, A. M., L. H. D. 

Author of Various L>iterary, Civil and Religious Works; former 

Pastor in Washing-ton and Boston, University Professor 

and Founder of Colorado CoUeg-e. 



(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) 



DENVER 

Carson Harper Company 

1901 



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PREFACE 



Some Previous Opinions of the Press 

''Professor Thomas N. Haskell has had published 
in a neat volume his poems entitled "The Wives of 
Our Presidents" and some "Washington Sermons," 
delivered at the National Capitol immediately pre- 
ceding and during the period of the Civil war. "The 
Presidential Sketches" celebrate in stately verse 
the characteristics of the women who have presided 
in the "White House," from Martha Washington to 
Mrs. McKinley, and due homage is paid to the splen- 
did womanhood that has found a home in the official 
residence of the nation. The sermons include his 
first address in the Federal City on "Duty and. In- 
terest (May II, 1854) ; a "Discourse on Immortality 
and Its Issues," before President Pierce : "The His- 
tory of the Bible and Its Influence on Civilization," 
delivered the night before Buchanan's inaugural, 
and "God, Providence and the President's Oath." on 
the eve of Lincoln's first inauguration. Two of the 
most noted sermons are "The American Soldier's 
Mission," preached to the "Massachusetts First," 
just prior to its departure for Washington; and on 
"Lincoln's Assassination," delivered to the bereft 
congregation, while the martyr's body was borne west 
for burial. These addresses reflect the vigorous 
patriotism and intense national spirit of the time, 
and suggest the very direct influence the pulpit exer- 
cised on the thought of that day. The volume is 
fully illustrated, well printed and bound, and its con- 
tents will add to Professor Haskell's reputation as 
an author and a master of a chaste English style." — 
Rocky Mountain Nezvs (March, igoi.) 

"The absorbing interest of the American people 
in the daily life, habits and personality of our Pres- 
dents, yields occasionally to the popular love and 
admiration for the Presidents' Wives, 'the first ladies 
of the land.' This is as it should be ; for most of the 
presidents have ascribed their success and honors 
to the influence of wives that inspire and mothers 



that ennoble. Rev. Dr. Haskell, of Denver, has 
contributed to literature a valuable book containing 
poems on our Presidents' Mothers, Wives and Daugh- 
ters, illustrated with likenesses, and Sermons on 
questions of great personal and public import, de- 
livered at various times by the author while a pastor 
in Washington and Boston. The Poems treat the 
happy and distinctive phases of the historic female 
characters described, and there is, sometimes swing- 
ing, sometimes stately, rythm to the verse which at- 
tracts and holds attention. The entire work is inter- 
esting reading." — Denver Times (May, 1901). 

"Our Presidents' Mothers, Wives and Daughters," 
by the Rev. Thomas Nelson Haskell, A. M., L. 
H. D. (sometime of Washington and Boston, now 
of Denver), has been exhausted in the first edition 
and will soon be reissued. Dr. Haskell is very happy 
in his chosen vehicle of verse for these sketches ; and 
his book — which also contains "Some Washington 
Sermons" — is a unique and choice contribution to 
American literature. Many of his poems are notable 
for their beauty, and the sermons are mines of 
thought." — Denver Post (May, iQOi). 

Rev. Dr. Haskell has brought out another issue 
of his "Washington Sermons and Presidential 
Women." The book is neatly bound and printed, 
and has gone quickly into the third edition, indicat- 
ing its deserved popularity. Professor Haskell 
is master of a pure and vigorous style, and his poetry 
has won favorable comment from critics on both 
sides of the Atlantic. His sketches of the Presidents' 
Wives and Mothers are in metrical form and are 
admirable condensations of the personal character- 
istics of these devoted women, from Mary Wash- 
ington to Mrs. McKinley. His Washington Sermons 
represent the cream of his thought during his pastor- 
ates at the Nation's Capital and in Boston, and are 
studious and scholarly efforts that make exceedingly 
interesting reading. His famous reply to Redpath's 
Eulogy of Jefferson Davis is also included, and the 
volume contains the author's affecting correspond- 
ence with Secreary Long about Ensign Bagley of 
North Carolina, the first victim of our Spanish war. 
— Denver Republican (June, 1901). 



Special Correspondence 

Dknver. Colo., June 30. Tgoo. 
Rev. Dr. Haskell: 

Dear Professor — At a recent meeting of "The 
Colorado Poets and Authors' Club," a committee 
was appointed to wait upon you with the request 
that you publish your" new books, especially the epic 
on the Race Problem, entitled "The Dark Secret/' 
under our auspices. The manuscript read before us 
was ornate, eloquent and instructive, and we greatly 
desire its early gift to the reading public. Hoping 
you will accede to our earnest wishes in this regard, 
I am, very respectfully, 

Ida L. Gregory, 
President Poets and .lutliors' Club. 



To the Honored President and Committee of the 
Poets and Authors' Club, Denver: 

Dear Friends — Your united oral and written re- 
quest has my grateful regard. My book on the 
Race Question, should not be published till the South 
African war is over ; I therefore submit now for 
your patronage my small rythmic manual on "The 
Mothers, Wives and Daughters of our Presidents," 
devoting a compact page to each. Their half-toned 
likenesses have been copied chiefly from Mrs. Hal- 
loway's excellent work on the "Women of the White 
House," and will be useful to all concerned. Re- 
spectfully yours, T. N. Haskell, L. H. D. 

Denver, July 4, igoo. 



Our Presideutj' A\otbers 

By th^ir A*\2ii^er> /Szirp^s 



Mother of George Washington Mary Ball 

Mother of John Adams Susanna Boylston 

Mother of Thomas Jefferson Jane Randolph 

Mother of James Madison Nellie Conway 

Mother of James Monroe Kliza Jones 

Mother of John Quincy Adams .... Abigail Smith 
Mother of Andrew Jackson . . Elizabeth Hutchinson 

Mother of Martin Van Buren Maria Hoes 

Mother of Wm. H. Harrison .... Elizabeth Bassett 

Mother of John Tyler Mary Armistead 

Mother of James K. Polk Jane Knox 

Mother of Zachary Taylor Sarah Strother 

Mother of Millard Filmore Phoebe Millard 

Mother of Franklin Pierce Anna Kendrick 

Mother of James Buchanan Elizabeth Speer 

Mother of Abraham Lincoln Nancy Hanks 

Mother of Andrew Johnson .... Mary McDonough 

Mother of Ulyses S. Grant Hannah Simpson 

Mother of Rutherford B. Hayes . . Sophia Burchard 

Mother of James A. Garfield Eliza Ballou 

Mother of Chester A. Arthur Malvina Stone 

Mother of Grover Cleveland Anna Neil 

Mother of Benjamin Harrison .... Elizabeth Irwin 
Mother of Wm McKinley . Nancy Campbell Allison 



Our Presidents' Wives, 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 






PREFATORY NOTICE. 



Our Presidents' Wives, Mothers and Daughters have (save 
one) been Bible-reading women, from their youth up; and so 
their excellence and strength of character have been superior 
and uniform. In portraying them in verse (to avoid imitating 
others) I have conformed the pages to my book on " Bible 
Women," and written for both common and cultivated people, 
trying to teach alike ethic truth and esthetic taste, so as to enter- 
tain, instruct and elevate the diversity of readers. 

In politics the book is absolutely impartial; in religion it is 
uasectarian, in all things fair. It goes forth now in the hope 
to help make American home-life happier, purer, nobler, because 
of the notable examples it gives at the head of the Nation, and 
the humble habitations whence thej' emerged into usefulness 
and honor. While the "poetical exaggerations" may be consid- 
ered too eulogistic generally, the tendency of these sketches will 
be to awaken a wider sympathy of society for the women provi- 
dentially exalted to high stations from among us and to increase 
our respect for all our own Christian people, especially if they 
be poor yet pious and patriotic. Mary Washington was hoeing 
in her garden in homespun, with a straw hat on, when LaFayette 
called to bid her farewell, and she received him without chang- 
ing her raiment. Nancy lyincoln and Eliza Garfield were peers 
in poverty, piety and virtue, and the number of widows' children 
elevated to Presidential office is indeed wonderful. As the Sign- 
ers of "The Declaration of Independence," the " Framers of the 
American Constitution," and the men so far chosen as our Chief 
Magistrates, have been remarkably providential, so have their 
wives been divinely ordained and worthy; and if my readers 
will study their long line of succession as reverently as I have, I 
am sure they will arise from their reading the richer in personal 
ambition to be useful and resigned to the wise purposes of the 
world's Overruler. 

All women can't be Wives of Presidents; but they can fill 
some .sphere — as humble yet as great as that of the Widow Gar- 
field in her cabin at the edge of her little cornfield. Then let no 
poor widow, or sorely-oppressed woman give up to despair in 
this day of great from small things. Remember how poor was 
the earth's infant Redeemer, and let the Mothers, Wives and 
Daughters of the great American Presidents inspire you hence- 
forth to thank God and take courage. Our Christian people are 
kings and priests unto God. There are none wiser or greater 
the world over. God bless the Christian Mothers, Wives and 
Daughters of America, T. N. H. 

Denver, April, 1892. 




X o 






z ^ 

ll 



"MARY, MOTHER OF WASHINGTON." 

[Washington's Mother may well lead the long- list of Bible- 
reading women who have, so far, borne and married our Ameri- 
can Presidents. She, as Mary Ball, was born in 1706, married 
widower Augustine Washington in 1730, and in 1743 was left a 
widow with six children. The oldest of these was George, a 
lad of twelve years, who read to her the Bible and "Sir Matthew 
Hale's Moral and Divine Contemplations." She followed her 
son with her daily prayers until he became President, when she 
died of cancer, in 1789.] (Read Ps. cxlvi, 9; Prov. xv, 25.) 

As "Mary, Mother of Washington" — 

The epitaph upon her tomb — 
Derives its signal from her son, 

Who was held "sacred from her womb," 
And rose defender of the right. 

Till all mankind's his monument, 
We look with reverent delight 

Upon her teaching his intent. 

The Mother of the Father of America 

Was left a widow; George, her oldest child, 
Was so well bred to her safe will obey 

Great Britain's grandeur ne'er the boy beguiled. 
He sat beside her, bearing in his hand 

A proud commission — the "midshipman's" pride — 
Which would have borne him where his native land 

Could never get his good, calm hand to guide. 

America, or England to prefer? — 

His Mother views this vast emergency, 
As if the widow's God was guiding her. 

To see and feel some future destiny. 
Maternal wisdom weighs his motives well, 

With head-and-heart-work of Sir Matthew Hale, 
Till sweet ambitions his obedience swell. 

And the "command with promise" doth prevail. 

(Eph. vi, 2) 

Their fervent piety — hers fed by prayer, 

His by her love — forever saved this land ! 
Whence let these always live thus everywhere; 

For the United States still on them stand. 
This nation lives by virtue of that law 

Of Faith, and Prayer, and Filial Piety. 
Th' endurance of old China had to draw 

Life from this law's longevity; 
So Mary Washington the world hath taught 
To "teach youth sacred Truth, and sell it not ! " 



4 OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES, 

MARTHA, WIFE OF WASHIXGTON. 

[The young widow, Martha Ciistis, married George Wash- 
ington in"i759, in her 29th year, and died in 1801. She, like his 
mother, was a Bible reading woman. A late notice says: "The 
Family Bible of Martha Washington! Price, $5,000. The vol- 
ume is a thick quarto, bound in plain calf and covered with 
strong un-bleached linen of home manufacture. Her autograph 
appears in three places: Martha Washington, her book, 1789," — 
received apparently from his dying mother, according to date.] 
(Read of Mary and Martha, Luke x, John xi ) 

"Jesus loved Mary ! Martha, too;" 

And so these names now handed down, 
Are found m nations not a few, 

And often grown to great renown. 
The Bible names, that thus have been, 

Selected for earth's famous seats, 
Suggest how often it is seen. 

That history itself repeats. 

But more — Behold these Bible Madames both. 

With their home-Bible handsome and well bound, 
And holdit]g even their household, age and troth, 

And daily read, indeed, all years around! 
Mark well those women, in the wilderness, 

And watching, day and night o'er distant war; 
In their deep hearts of helpful tenderness. 

Both fancy battles booming fierce and far ! 

What can support in w^ar a constant wife 

But Christ, who cured the sword's keen cruel wound, 
Before he, loving, went to lay down life, 

Amid such dreadful darkness so profound, 
The sun in Heaven in sorrow hid his face, 

And all the earth groaned in its agony. 
At his great grief, that gave to us his grace, 

And our Republic all prosperity ? 

Well, Martha Washington Christ's hostess was; 

She welcomed him unto her wounded heart; 
When there came peril to her country's cause. 

She read and plead till he did help impart — 
Now, lo ! "America's Immanuel's land!" 

Here, every daj', where praying households are, 
Maternal council moves at his command, 

And prospered life proceeds, led on by prayer — 
But here is something hard to understand: 
How Congress moved to ask at Martha's hand 
Her husband's grave ! and she grants their demand ! 




MKS. PREST. WASHINGTON. 




MRS. PREST. .70HN ADAMS. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 5 

ABIGAIL ADAMS, WIFE OF THE SECOND PRESIDENT. 

[Abigail (Smith) Adams, a descendant of John Quincy, and 
daughter and granddaughter of Congregational ministers, was 
born in Weymouth, Mass , in 1744; married John Adams in 1764; 
was the first Lady of the White House i8oo-i; was honored as a 
model Bible woman of the first order, and so adored by her heirs, 
that her son John Quincy said near his death: "I've prayed my 
infant prayer every night till now." She died in 1818, having 
been, as her name implies, '"her father' s joy ;'' her husband's aid 
and her country's pride.] (Read Ps. xxiii and I. Samuel, xxv.) 

See that young dame, near Dorchester! 

She's luatchin^ Washington bombard 
The town of Boston! Look at her! 

She's zuorthy of a zvorld'' s regard. 
Could you but stand where "Abby" stood, 

Recounting there the canon's roar, 
You would thank God for sounds so good, 

And mind that music evermore. 

For when the Britons fled that Boston town, 

Howe rung above the happy bells of heaven; 
His hand our Christian Liberty did crown, 

And left, to work in all the world, her leaven. 
Thence "Abby Adams" — in her healthy veins 

Flowing both Quincy and quite sacred blood — 
Surveyed her Country's sacramental plains, 

And in God's name pronounced the prospect good. 

At home, abroad, happy was she, and brave; 

'Twas Christian courage breathed within her breast; 
She sought, in all her life, our liberty to save, 

And, blending faith with hope, w^as highly blest. 
The pride of the proud "Second President," 

Who consecrates the White House with his care, 
She is renowned as its first resident, 

And daily practiced there their household prayer. 

Her sons she taught: " I lay me down to sleep! " 

'Twas said so warmly while they were so young, 
That one, when President, prayed still: "Lord keep 

My soul ! " — with reverential word and tongue. 
"The old man eloquent" ne'er entered bed 

Till, with a tender grace, he talked with God, 
And the son's infant words in faith were said. 

We bring with this that Mother's words abroad, 
And say: "Thiswoman had aWebster's heart and head" 
Whose faithful words and deeds will be forever read! 



6 OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES, 

PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S WIFE AND DAUGHTERS. 

[Mrs. Martha (Wayles) Skelton was born in Virginia, 1749, 
second marriage to Thomas Jefferson, 1772, died 1782. Of her 
five children, two, INIartha and Mary, aided their father in the 
White House. The younger Mary (Eppes) died in 1804 and 
Martha (Randolph) died in 1836. These daughters were educated 
in a French Convent, and though Martha wished at one time to 
be a nun, she afterwards wrote against celibacy and transub- 
stantiation, and the three lived and died devout Episcopalians 
and derived comfort from the fact that President Jefferson when 
afflicted was found with the Bible in his hands.] (Read Psalm 
XLVi, and John v. 39 ) 

Of our Third President, the wife, 

Who loved him like idolatry, 
And to his labors toned her life, 

Bore him five children tenderly. 
Of these, two daughters seemed divine; 

So we've two sisters and the saint 
That bore them, all benign, 

And called from earth without complaint. 
Two Marthas and one Mary mark the page; 

Three women buoyant, beautiful and wise, 
Imbued with the best ideas of their age, 

Raised high in rank as women e'er could rise. 
To these three Bible women's beauteous lives 

We're pleased to pay warm tribute in its place, 
Because they three became those thrifty wives 

That grow to ripeness in redeeming grace. 
Two passed from earth to endless Paradise 

Before the Sire and President had left the scene; 
Hence, when to God he did himself demise. 
He left his ^'IMartha'" to his countrymen. 
So ' 'Martha Randolph' ' soon was made the theme 
Of his dear country's thankful, kindest thought; 
Yet not so good 'twould seem as God Supreme, 

Nor have her hei rs been ho nored as they ought. 
Lo ! this coincidence let us afiix: 

When Jefferson and Adams joined decree, 
On July fourth of seventeen sevent)'-six, 

That the United States be thenceforth free, 
They hardly thought just half a century, 

On eighteen twenty six's natal day. 
They'd pass together to eternit}- — 

But so it was; both wise men passed away ! 
One said: "I give myself to God !" and died; 
"Let Independence live !" the other cried; 
Then Adams passed t' his patriot brother's side ! 




PREST JKFFERSON S DAUGHTER, MARTHA. 
(MRS. RANDOLPH.) 




MRS. PRKST. JAMES MADISON. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 7 

MRS. PRESIDENT JAMES MADISON. 
[I^Irs. Dorothy (Payne) Madison, was born of anti-slavery 
Quaker parents in North Carolina in 1767. She was educated in 
Philadelphia, married John Todd, in 1786, and as his widow 
became Mrs. Madison in 1794. She accompanied her hus- 
band into the White House, in her 34th year, and showed 
great fortitude when the President was a fugitive and the White 
House and Capitol were in flames. She was then the most pop- 
ular person in America. Her onlj' sorrow was her dissolute son ! 
She died in 1849.] (Read Absalom and Prodigal Son, L,uke xv., 
and II Samuel, xviii, 33.) 

This model, Madamk Madison, 

Americans have much admired, 
As if by Mesdames Washington 

And Adams, both, she'd been inspired. 
In her tried character and true, 

There's something that is so unique, 
So hearty and so handsome, too. 

Spontaneously itself doth speak. 

How rolicsome and rubicund she was 

With all the children whom she chanced to meet ! 
Respectful to those making speeches, laws, 

And letters sent to foreign monarchs' seat. 
How more than happy she made potentates. 

And gave to each grand welcome as her guests, 
And won renown in our United States, 

And every land where our diploma rests ! 
'Twas wonderful, her wise ability — 

— Adaptability' s the better word — 
Her duties were of such diversity, 

And some of which herself had never heard ! 
How quenchless piety and quickening power 

Sustained her supreme equanimity, 
That hated, hot, humiliating hour 

Her " Mansion " burned with British enmity ! 
Still what a blending of all excellence 

In rites religious which her life regards; 
A woman pious, yet without pretense, 

Allowing that this Earth is all the I^ord's. 
She worshiped with a warm and sharing heart, 

With all true lovers of her wondrous Lord, 
In whose atonement she profe?sed a part, 

And reverent waited on his righteous Word ! 
Yet all life long she wept her wayward sou, 
As David over Absalom had done ! 



8 OUR ^RESIDENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE. 

[It was in 1789 Miss Eliza Cortright married in New York> 
Senator James Monroe, of Virginia, and afterward attended him 
to the greatest number of important public offices at home and 
abroad, ever awarded an American citizen. She was a worthy- 
wife of such a man, and mother of his children , Eliza and Maria, 
who married well and were also modest and faithful mothers. 
She died in 1830 and her husband July 4, 1831. Her most distin- 
gui=;hing deed was the deliverance from death of Marchioness 
de La Fayette, and, as a consequence, liberating La Fa^^ette him- 
self, who thence lived and came to this country last in 1825.] 
(Read: "I was sick and in prison and ye came unto me." Matt. 

XXV.) 

America's Ambassadress 

Seems sent across the. sea in time 
To blend our thoughts and thanks to bless 

Those crushed with chains but without crime. 
In Europe had a crisis risen; 

There La Fayette in dungeon lay; 
In Paris was his wife in prison, 
Expecting death on any day! 
The livery of our Minister there led one morn 

The woman from the Western world and free 
Whom Marchioness de La Fayette forlorn 
Would sooner than all other women see; 
For, through her kindness, life for death there came; 
Then our Ambassadors The Marquis, too, unbound 
And La Fayette's noble, defeated name 

Was raised from fetters to respect profound ! 
Here's joy enough, to have been judged of Heaven, 

The harbinger of such a help and hope, 
When France to frenzy and despair was driven 

By \yi^ great "Corporal" and "gracious Pope." 
And such this holocaustic Heroine, 

Whose husband ministered at highest courts, 
Declared her mission seemed almost divine; 

And so the people thought from such reports. 
Madame Monroe the Master thus obeyed; 
She, as He prompted, to the pris'ners came; 
And doubtless other deeds if all arrayed, 

Would lend still fuller lustre to her fame. 
Her daughters twain, Eliza and Maria, 

Were wives and mothers modelled after her. 
And, like the Mission of their Lord Messiah, 

They professed faiths that would wise deeds prefer; 
And in the White Housa what all did was wise; 
Their parts well acted; there the honor lies! 




4 




MRS. PREST. JAMES MONROE. 




MRS. PREST, JOHN Q. ADAMS. 




MRS. PREST. .lA.MKS MONROE. 




MRS. PREST. JOHN (.} ADAMS 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 9 

MRS. PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

[This Bible Woman born of American parents, in London, 
1775, as Miss Louisa Catherine Johnson, married the American 
Minister, John Quincy Adams in 1797. She wrote his father: 
" The systems of the ancients have been qnite out of my reach 
excepting- Plato's Dialogues, which I have read attentively. 
With modern philosophers 1 have become more familiar; but / 
have never seen anything that would compare with the chaste and 
exquisitely simple doctrines of Christianity." She gave her 
hushand three sons and a daughter aud was Mistress in the 
Executive Mansion when La Fayette was for two weeks their 
g-uest. She died in 1852.] (Read cxv. P.^alm ) 

When LaFayette became the gtiest 

At the proud home of Presidents, 
The Mistress who had been most blest 

With means to watch wise men's intents, 
There welcomed him, with heart so warm, 

And ways so gen'rous and so just, 
As both ovir Champion to charm 

And toward his wrongs turn deep disgust. 
'Twas our fifth President's high privilege 
To welcome LaFayette thus to the land 
Which he had helped to save from hostile siege; 

And these two statesmen there before us stand: 
"With love surpassing that of women," they 

Embrace and weep, in wise yet broken words; 
When time hath come for them to part, they say: 

" Let all acknowledge: 'Nations are the Lords!' " 
I wonder that no limner ever laid 

Before the world this scene of that Farewell, 
When LaFayette profoundest tribute paid 

For days there spent where our Chief rulers dwell! 
Lo! as they stand, the Lord's own angel stood 

In person of the Mistress President, 
With face so godly, in effect so good, 

Her very soul seemed as a vision sent. 
In all her varied life her virtties shone, 

Whether in White House, or at Foreign Court, 
Her noble culture was confessed and known, 

But as with Sheba's Queen, it past report. 
'Twas Mistress Adams' main ambition then 
To use her knowledge of nations and things 
To make more potent all true public men, 

And crown the Christ alone as King of Kings! 
But there have often in that Mansion been 
Such scenes more sacred than are elsewhere seen? 



10 OUR PReSIDENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. RACHEL JACKSON, WIFE OF OUR VI. PRESIDENT. 

[Mrs. President Jackson, w^^Miss Rachel Donelson, was born 
in Virginia, 1767; removed at 12 to Tennessee, where she married 
her second husband. Col. Jackson, in 1794: accompanied him as 
first Governor of Florida, where she secured the observance of 
the Sabbath and regular public worship, and to Washington as 
Senator, but between Jackson's election and inauguration as 
President, she overheard some remarks about a long-ago duel 
which so shocked her sensibility that she died soon after ; and. 
her niece, Mrs. Emily Donelson, was mistress of the White 
House in her stead. She died Dec. 22, 182S.] (Her funeral text: 
"The Righteous shall be in Everlasting Remembrance." Ps.cxii,6) 
Those who've wandered down a river, 
Gathering wild flowers on its bank, 
Where the water-cresses quiver, 
And wild deer so lately drank. 
Can appreciate perfect nature 
That inspired the pioneers, 
And will fancy every feature 
Fitted to cast out their fears. 
So it was not all in native courage; 

But the God of Nature gave to know 
They might freely in his forests forage. 

And himself had sometimes taught them how. 
With this spirit sped the winsome maiden, 

Down the rivers to the forest region, 
On a flat-boat, full of bounties laden — 
Yet the priceless thing was their religion ! 
— (Her father's Journal read: "A voyage by God's permission.") 
Through afflictions, like a furnace heated. 

She became the helpmeet of ''Old Hick'ry,'' 
And beside him wdth aff"ection seated. 

Viewed well-pleased applaudits of his vict'ry; 
Then, in sight the Presidential Mansion, 

She heard words so wanton and so cruel. 
They surpassed ambition's safe expansion. 
And she fell, like "Dickinson" in duel ! 
Then the mighty, joyless man and "Gen'ral," 
Chastened as one stript of wife and children, 
Hastened from her sad and famous fun'ral 

To preside o'er a protesting cauldron, 
Cheered no little by her niece and nephew, 

Who, as Clerk and Mistress in that Mansion, 
Help't the Ruler in his "Public Review," 

Soothed and softened oft his sore intention, 
And with him, through faith in "Rachel's Savior'* 
Passed at last to God, The Father's favor ! 



:^-mf^T^' . 





.V^,. A 




MKS. PKKST. ANDREW .JACKSON. 




MRS. PREST. MAKTIN VAN BUREN. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. H 

MRS. HANNAH (HOES) VAN BUREN. 

[Mrs. Van Buren, nee Miss Hannah Goes (Hoes,) was born in 
Kinderhook, N. Y , 1782, was school male of Martin Van Bnren 
whom she married in 1807 She died in 1819, leaving her devoted 
husband to enter the White House — like General Jackson — as a 
widower. She was a deeply pious, Bible reading mother of five 
children. , Her accomplished daughter-in-law, Angelica (Single- 
ton) VanBuren, was cousin of the renowned Mrs. Madison, and 
through her becante mistress of the White House, honored and 
loved, at home and abroad.] (Read the xc. Psalm.) 

The name of "Hoes" is Kinderhook's 

(Or "Goes" around that ''gud all'' town) 
It hath been found in household books, 

As upright and of pure renown. 
There Hannah Hoes, a handsome lass, 

Was the loved belle of all the ville; 
In school she headed every class, — 

Save one indomitable will ! 

That overmatching will was "Martin Van," 

Whose galantry she loved as kind and good, 
And when he passed to be a public man, 

In chairs of state, his chosen bride she stood. 
So happy were they in their hearts and home, 

Their bliss was unto all that knew them blest; 
For those who could unto their presence come 

Have never tired their home-life to attest. 

There "Mistress Van" had most majestic views 

Of God and duty on each given day; 
And so befitting did her Bible use. 

She bade her children read it and obey ! 
She early seemed not long to live on earth, 

Her conversation had caught up to heaven; 
So when she went away, so real her worth, 

Van Buren wept and said: ''She, we are seven .^"' 

( Wordsworth. 
He never looked for her dear like again ! 

However wiley may have been his ways, 
Whatever burdens bore upon his brain, 

He loved "Dear Hannah" all his living days ! 
And now that picture needs this added part: 

His Son's pure wife, worthy a second place. 
Came to the White House, and so near his heart 

She granted her exquisite courtly grace 
To his high ofiice with her ornate, helpful art — 
HerCousin, Mistress Madison, "Calling the start I"" 



12 OUR PtiESIDENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. PRESIDENT WM. HENRY HARRISON. 

[Mrs. Anna (Symms) Harrison was born in New Jersey, 1775; 
moved to Ohio, 1794; married Capt. Harrison, 1795 ; accompanied 
him to Congress, and to the Governor's seat, but not to ''the 
Executive Mansion." She had borne so many children and 
burdens for them ; had shared so many pioneer and polemic 
hardships, that in Feb., 184 1, she was not able to go to Washing- 
ton. She was in every way a model woman, and her numerous 
progeny will ever praise her memory. She died in 1864, select- 
ing for her funeral text: Ps. xlvi.,10: "Be still and know that I am 
■God."] 

Here Mistress Harrison appears 

Both model, and a beau ideal; 
From early youth for eighty years, 

Religious life with her was real. 
In form and fact she's beautiful; 

And her aflaauces are fit; 
A hero true — no traitor Hull — 

i'oth won her hand, and worshiped it. 

Of all the Bible Women in the West— 

And there are noble millions of them now, — 
That brave old Chieftain's wife was of the best. 

And her religion wreathed his upright brow. 
Taught by her Eible and by nature both. 

So never once her wisdom seemed to cease; 
With Christian truth and faith she'd kept her troth; 

In all his periods of war and peace. 

The wondrous wilds in the deep western woods, 

Blending the scenes of bloody savage strife, 
"With wastes by famine, forest-fires and floods, 

Intensified the factors of their life, 
'Till character, when " Christ is formed within " 

In such associations as they sought, 
Became God's baricade against all sin 

And built a conscience that could not be bought! 

There's something that's sublimely sweet 

In 'Mother Harrison's" own modest home ! 
There, she like Mary sat at Jesus' feet. 

And yet, like Martha, served all guests that come; 
And in her patience, when in grief and pain, 

She felt affliction's hand upon her pressed. 
She was, though widowed, willing to remain 

Till Heaven's time come to cill her home to rest; 
There's not in her life's story the least stain; 
Nor quite her equal among queeiis that reign ! 




PKKST. VAN BUBEN'S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW 
(NEE MISS SINC4LETON) 





\» 



MRS. PREST. JOHN TYLEK. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 13: 

MRS. PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER. 

[Mrs. IvCtitia (Christian) Tyler, a lover of music and other- 
fine arts, was born in Cedar Grove, Va., 1779; married John 
Tyler, 1813; was mother of seven children, one of which says: 
"My first memory is that she taught me my letters from the 
family Bible." She died in the White House, September, 1842. 
In June, 1844, her husband took young Miss Julia Gardner, late 
from a convent in New York, to serve as wife and mistress in 
the White House. The only one who seems not to have been 
through life, a sincere Bible-reader. She died July 10, 1889.] 
(Read the Ixvi. Psalm.) 

There's music in the march of years; 

There's music in the moving seas; 

There's music of the mighty spheres, 

And breaths of music in the breeze; 

There's music in our fights and fears, 

And music of mellifluous bees; 
There's music in the drop of tears, 
And music by the birds in trees; 
But rythm of loving, rounded, beauteous lives 

Of matron heads of model families. 
All way as maidens, women, mothers, wives, 

Hath music here of heaven's sweet melodies. 
Madame Letitia Tyler's mother-love, 

From early life until her death at last. 
Her practical and pious home-life prove; 

Her ''Christian''' name was in her nature cast. 
Her social labors, so much loved and sought, 

Her love-born character, so biblical, 
Her Bible teaching as one Bible-taught, 

Made her whole mission here seem musical. 
Her death — where Harrison had lately died ! — 

In contrast with the "Gun Catastrophe," 
And bringing in of dancing and a bride. 

Have put her name high up in history! 
Whatever hath been spoken of her spouse, 

So honored and selected to high place, 
Whatever, after, was in the White House, 

This Mistress Tyler's grandest mead was grace. 
This Christly daughter of a "Christian" man, 

Most beautiful in body and in mind. 
Whose life like rythmical love sonnets ran. 

Whose memory will honor woman kind, 
A very sweet and lovely "psalm of life," 
Will be "John Tyler's beautiful first wife; " 
Nor for her place let school girls enter strife! 



14 OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. PRESIDENT JAMES KNOX POLK. 

[Mrs. Sarah (Childress)Polk wasbornnearMurphreysborough, 
Tenn., in 1803, and lived and died childless. She was educated in 
a N. C. Moravian Seminary; married Mr Polk in 1822; and with 
him entered the White House in 1845, where she filled her office 
of President's wife with equal felicitj' and fidelity. She sj'mpa- 
thized with her husband's devotion to the Union and with the 
South's endeavor to distroy it. She received G. A. R. and other 
conventions delightfully, just before her death in 1891.] (Read 
Job xxviii., 12-28.) 

Perhaps no person ever was 
More truly an American^ 
Thau Mistress Polk, in every cause 

That might first help her fellow man. 
She was well balanced, wise and brave, 

Made up of dignity divine 
And sympathy that seeks to save, 

And^ helps the Heavenly sun to shine. 
Queenly in person, quiet, self possessed, 

With elegance and equipoise, and grace. 
She gave each guest at once to feel at rest; 
For a fair beam of light's about her face! 
She stood like " Emma Donelson " in state, 

A cultured Teiinessean, kind and true, 
Whom nothing ever seems to so elate, 

She did not know " exactly " what to do. 
She played, always, a wise and prudent part, 

With no propensity to put on airs; 
For the world's history she knew by heart, 
•■ And was familiar with modern affairs. 
In company she could her powers command; 

No diplomat said what she seemed to doubt; 
No statesman's words but she would understand. 

And be mistress of all they talked about. 
And when she left the White House for her home, 

Her courteous hospitality, still kind. 
With Christian spirit spoke to such as come, 

In friendly dignity no less refined. 
And during all that wicked dreadful war, 

While her warm symathies were with her "South," 
She never made a sign one's sense to mar, 

And no irrev'rent mood rushed from her mouth. 
When Fed'ral Educators from afar 
Stood near, they saw still bright her evening star. 
And Heaven's dear "Beulah Land" seemed beck'ning 
her! 




MRS. PBEST. .TAMES K. P01.lv. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGIlTl;RS. 15 

MRS. PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

[Mrs. Margaret (Smith) Taylor was a Maryland farmer's 
daughter, distinguished for her Christian simplicity of character 
and" common sense. She married Captain Taylor in iSio, and 
showed a wonderful devotion to her wifely duties, until her hus- 
band's death in the Executive Mansion, July gth, 1850. Her 
daughter "Bessie," Mrs Elizabeth Bliss, did for her most of the 
duties of "Lady of the White House." Mrs Taylor died in Aug- 
ust, 1852, possessed of the same kindly, Bible-loving spirit she 
had borne from early life.] (Read Proverbs, xxxi.) 

The loved simplicity of life, 

And marvelous sincerity 
Of "Rough and Ready's" royal wife, 

Should pass to our posterity, 
To teach a lesson long to last, 

Like a perpetual legacy, 
That never yet hath been surpassed. 

And possibly will never be. 

When she first left her shantied, live-stock farm. 

In her melodious, happy Maryland, 
Her child-like ways were full of healthy charm. 

And "Captain Taylor" captured heart and hand. 
Their hearts and hands were held thence close and warm 

Until his death into The White House came; 
And first to last, she did her part perform 

Without a thought of future wealth or fame. 

The sweet unselfishness that swayed her soul. 

When suff 'ring soldiers felt her sympathy, 
Where cruel savages had kept control. 

Till her "old Indian Fighter's" victory, 
Or coming filled with wounds from foreign wars, 

Was like her Savior's hand with healing touch; 
And how she honored "honorable scars," 

Because our bravest men "had borne so much ! " 

And where she swooned at touch of the death-sweat 

Upon her husband's broad and massy brow, 
A faithful country cannot soon forget, 

Although too little thought of, even now. 
But as she aided others to adore 

The God of battles and of good behest. 
Let Margaret Taylor live forever more ; 

For blessing many be her memory blest ! 
And "Bessy Taylor"! what a ''Bliss'' was she ; 

Most happy model, in her ministry ! 



16 OUR PRI^IDENTS' WIVES, 

MKS. PRESIDENT MILLARD KILLMORE. 

[Mrs. Fillmore— «(?<' Miss Abigail Powers, was born in Still- 
water, N. Y., in 1798. Her father was a distinguished Baptist 
minister, but died in her first year, leaving her to the joint care 
of her mother and the widow's God. This however secured to 
her even a better education than her illustrious husband's, who 
had the superhuman benefits of her Bible-nurtured society, from 
their marriage in 1S26, till her death soon after leaving the 
White House, March, 1S53. She left with him one son and 
daughter and a vast sympathetic populace to mourn her loss.] 
(Read Deuteronomy X, 18; xiv, 29; xvi, 11; xxiv, 19-21.) 

Another "Abigail" appears; 

Another widow's child we have, 
To show how those who sow in tears 

Beside a parent's parting grave, 
May yet fulfill their *' father's joy," 

And with rejoicing may return 
Where the}- were once a girl or boy. 

And life renew, review and learn. 

For so, the Fillmore family are found 

To take us back to poverty and pain; 
Thence to behold what benefits abound 

Where there was born the wealth of heart and brain. 
The pious thirst of "Abby Powers" for thought, 

Her thorough knowledge of earth's noble things 
Which she obtained, and unto others taught. 

Would fit a Christian to consort with kings. 

The ways she helped her husband to achieve, 

The honors which they two so aptly won. 
Were beneficial fully to believe, 

That we do well as all the wise have done. 
Like Mistress Adams, first in the White House, 

Here Madame Fillmore of majestic form, 
With righteous indignations that arouse. 

Had a wdse head, and heart as wise as warm. 

Then, to her daughter Mary, she might turn 

In any time of need for hostess aid; 
For she was learn 'd, as well as apt to learn, 

America's own model of a maid ! 
'Twas so equipt. The Fillmore's, side by side, 

With their distinguished daughter, entered in, 
Where Zachary Taylor had so lately died, 

And well united did new honors win; 
To bare apartments suited books supplied, 
And lived a beauteous home-life^ beside! 




MRS. PREST. FILLMORE, 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 17 

PRESIDENT FII.LMOKE'S DAUGHTER. 

[Miss Mary Al)ijfail Fillmore was born in Buffalo in 1832 
and died of Cholera, iSs4 She was teaching public school when 
called by the Tresideiit to act at 22 as lady of the White House. 
A local paper says; "She was always governed by a sense of 
religious duty and her relations to her Creator and Savior were 
constantly in her thoughts; and young as she was, she did much 
to lay the' foundation of a mode of social life more kind, cultured 
and genuine As her beaming intelligence rises before us, it 
suggests only Hjw good ! how Kind I and she is gone !"j (See xc, 
PS. 12.) 

Pause here, O American maiden ! 

And study Ibis model in vState; 
Whose beautiful life was so laden 

With fortune soon severed by fate. 
Stand b}' her, in casket there sleeping, 

Mid mates of her modest young years, 
Where the vStates are all standing round weeping 

And the Nation is now shedding tears ! 

Look back o'er that life in its beaiity — 

A mirror in which see thy face — 
All radiant with devotion to duty, 

Adorned with both learning and grace. 
What heights "nea'h the halo of fame. 

She gilded with goodness and skill. 
And left Xh^re filled full as her name — 

The story of her excellence still ! 

While going thence forth to her grave, 

Remember her Vv'isdom and worth; 
How bright was her spirit and brave. 

How lowly her ancestral birth ! 
//rr life was like thine, howe'er lowly; 

Let thine be like her's at its best; 
Then d3'ing — or quick I3' — or slowly, 

Thy mem'ry like her's may be blest ! 

All the world ! look ye on this loved picture 

Of life-fruit in this land of the free; 
Of crowned heads who inherit no stricture 

But the best of free beings to be ! 
What a contrast if none could be queen, 

But a scion of some dame and sire. 
Whose seedy successions are seen, 

And to which but their heir may aspire, 
No matter how hateful and mean 
Their character and conduct have been ! 



13 OUR PRgfelDKNTS' WIVES, 

MRS. PRESIDENT FRANK PIERCE. 

[Mrs. Jane Meaus Pierce, who resembled Jonathan Edwards, 
was the daughter of President Appleton, D. D., of Bowdoiu 
College, Me., and born March 12, 1806. She married Mr. Pierce, 
1834, and with him entered the White House in March, 1853. 
As one has well said: " It is no disparagement to others to claim 
for her there unsurpassed dignity and grace, delicacy and purity 
in all that pertains to public life. There was a Christian home, 
quietly and constantly maintained in the Executive Mansion 
while she was its mistress." She died in Audover, Mass., in 1863, 
saying among her last words: "Jesus, Lover of my Soul, let 
me to thy bosom fly. "J (See Rev. xiv. 13.) 

America's best mother-mind, 

Most ethical and most ornate, 
Most feminine and most refined, 

Most studious of her moral state, 
Most helpful to her husband's heart, 

Most flexile in afflictions fierce, — 
Until she panted to depart — 
That "Mother-Mind" was Madame Pierce! 
Not that she was all mind-ethereal; 

Though intellectual, she lived to los'e. 
With model form of fine material, 

And beaming eyes, like Edward's, lit above. 
And yet those eyes had shed full shares of tears; 

From infancy she'd often been bereft, 
Had buried children in their budding years, 

Till loving " Bennie's " all that they have left. 
And when at last, they to the White House went, 

They had yet this one treasure more to yield, 
To fit Frank Pierce in full for President — 

They laid " fond Bennie " in the buried field ! 
The people gave them the best gift they had. 

But coming to it caused this keenest grief, 
It took the life of that as loving lad 

As e'er was born of sanctified belief 
Hence Pierce's bold Inaugural began 

By speaking of this " bitter sorrow " borne 
When on their way to this last gift of man — 

Full many tears there fell with them to mourn. 
'Twas in such sorrow — not a soul could know — 

When Mrs. Pierce made her appearance where 
Some souls had lately suffered nearly so — 

'Twas thus she came and served her country there! 
Through wearisome ordeals this woman went, 
The Peerless Wife of a proud President! 




PRESIDENT JAMKS BUCHANAX'S XIKCK 
(miss HARKIKTT I.ANK) 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. I9 

MISS HARRIIiT LANE, BUCHANAN'S NIECE, AND LADY OF THE 
WHITE HOUSE. 

[Presideut Buchanan left the White House a bachelor ; the 
first celibate Executive, and we hope the last one. His favorite 
niece. Miss Lane, whom he had educated from early orphanage, 
was called to serve as the President's lady assistant. Like Mrs. 
Pierce, she entered the White House in sorrow and went through 
her duties with unseen weeping. Her brother and sister had 
been suddenly buried. She received thanks from Victoria and 
Albert Edward for her hospitable service to him in i860. In 1866 
she became Mrs. Johnson, and since bore him a son named 
James Buchanan.] (Read xlvi Psalm.) 
Born iu a praying home, 
Of Presbyterian stock, 
Where saints were wont to come, 

And pastors of the flock. 
Young "Hattie's" yearning heart 

Heaved many a sigh for heaven, 
And for that "better part" 
Which was to Mary given. 
But 'ere she'd read her Bible through. 

The heart of love on which she leaned, 
That trained her taste for what is true, 

Was from this world so fully weaned. 
Her mother moved to homes on High, 

And gave to God her orphaned cnild, — 
Whose sire was also soon to die. 

And leave the child in sorrow's wild. 
Her mother's brother met her case; 

Adopting, as a daughter, her. 
He trained her youth in truth and grace 

That she Heaven's precepts should prefer. 
His sympathy was her support; 

His thought her ample, pleasing thanks; 
And when he dwelt at foreign court, 

She rose into the highest ranks. 
Hence, in the "House of Uncle Sam," 

There's scarce an equal to her skill; 
In ev'n a "Presidential jam" 

She's mistress of the masses still. 
With Mary Fillmore's flexile ease, 

With Madame Pierce's pensive mind, 
She doth the public serve and please 

With royal courtesies and kind — 
While secret traitors tried to seize 
The President by deep surprize. 
And "pulled their wool over his eyes!" 



20 



OUR PREsfDENTb' WIVES. 



MRS. MARY TODD LINCOLN. 



[Hon. Ward H. Lamon savs: "Lincoln had frojn boyhood a 
presentiment that he would be President and die bj' violence. 
Mrs. Iv. too had the same belief as to the Presidencj'. She is 
quoted as saying-, soon after their marriage: 'He is going- to be 
President, and that's the reason I married him, for \-ou know he 
is not pretty.' " She bore Mr. Lincoln five children, four of 
whom died before her own demise in an insane asylum, July 16, 
1882. Her life of rational enjoyment really ended when Booth's 
bullet entered her husband's massy and benignant brain.] (Read 
Isaiah liii.) 

I've heard it said that "Martin Van," 

When playing with his well pleased mates, 
Would say: "See here! When I'm a man, 

I'll rule o'er The United States!" 
I've read in print that M.\ry Todd 

So hoped The White House would be hers, 
And when she gave herself to God, 

That prophesy she still prefers. 

Yet Mary Todd would not "Steve Douglas" wed, 

For bees, found in her bonnet, seemed to say: 
"I hear a something singing in my head, 

^Abe Lincoln will be President some day!' " 
Presentiments of manj^ public men 

Have been like heralds from the bounds of heaven; 
Both good and bad forebodings there have been; 

For seers the ''traitor'' saw with "the eleven." 

But here, both "Abraham" and "Mary" felt 

Rare futures were before them in real fact; 
So Lincoln's noble heart on heaven knelt. 

And her expectance hailed his every act. 
With his presentiments, hers, too, would share; 

And when he left his people, to preside. 
And prayed them give to him their guiding prayer, 

She, wufelike, loving, waited at his side. 

And when he watched through all that wicked war, 
She wrote a note requesting men to pray 

That peace and freedom be not put afar; 

And with a "^patriots pen, repeated: "Pray!" 

When prophecies of both had been fulfilled, 

And Booth had pierced The Nation's noble head, 

The widow cried: "The President is killed!'" 
Her shattered mind by such a mighty shock 
Could simply leave behind: "Christ is my Rock!" 

*She wrote this note to me at Governor Andrew's, Boston. 




MR8. PREST. A. LINCOLN. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 21 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S MOTHER. 

[Mrs. Nancy (Hanks) lyincoln was born in Virginia, but 
raised in Kentucky. In 1806 she married illiterate, honest 
Thomas Lincoln, and moved to Indiana, giving birth to a daugh- 
ter and the one son Abraham, whom she taught to fear God and 
read the Bible, so that he afterwards said: " All I am or hope to 
be, I owe to my Angel Mother! Blessings on her memory." She 
died when he was 9 years old, and soon his father married widow 
Sarah Johnson, with three children, whom he loved, and who 
were also fond of "Abe" as an obliging, honest boy.] (Read Ps. 
I and XXV, 10.) 

A child of nature and of God, 

RaiseU up in rude simplicity, 
Where many an Indian maid had trod 

Filled with wild felicity; 
Young Nancy Hanks's unknown youth 

With sparce companionships was spent; 
But there she learned and loved the truth 

Of God in Christ; this gave content! 

Thus by the Bible " born of God again," 

That holy book seems all her cabins own, 
Save Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress printed plain; 

So these she used to read and taught her son, 
Till with delight he learned to read them loud. 

Thus, by fire light, he lit his "lamp of life," 
And with his progress made his parents proud. 

As for it well " Tom Ivincoln " praised his wife. 

So by that Bible, Sire and son were blessed, 

And Nancy IvIncoln's house had needful peace, 
Till in her son's tenth year she sank to rest. 

And from her rough, hard lot had fit release. 
Her kind successor. Sarah Johnson came. 

Viewing that Bible, very best of books, 
She helped boy Abraham bear up his name 

Till truth and trials traced even his looks. 

Hence ''Honest Abe"" has been his honored name; 

Though Weems's (well lent) Life of Washington 
And Bunyan's Pilgrim helpt beget his fame, 

'Twas Nancy Lincoln's Bible named her son. — 
Thou dear departed shade! that doth now shine 

In Heaven's salubrious, happy, unseen spheres ! 
Dost thou not look from days and lands divine, 

Back to thy cabin's tears and burdened 3^ears, 
Where past and future could by faith combine. 
And say: Glad, Glorious Motherhood was Mine ! 



22 OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. ELIZA MC CARi:)LE JOHNSON. 

[After Lincoln's death, President and Mrs Andrew Johnson 
entered the White House. They were half-orphans of pious 
widows, and were married in his 21st year. He was an illiterate 
tailor, and she became his evening teacher; was a very beautiful 
woman, and was at Washington inspiring his ablest Senate 
speech against secession, Jan., 1861. She returned toTenn., and 
lost her health by her persecutions within the Confederate lines, 
so that she was unable afterwards to officiate in the White House, 
but received her guests around her chair. She had two daugh- 
ters, Martha and Mary, who did the honors well. She died in 
1876, and on their monument is carved an open Bible! ] (Read 
Psalm cxix, 97-112.) 

How honored is a poor man's home ! 

Here God says : "Give this house to me ; 
And if calamity shall come, 

Your orphan children mine shall be ; 
My covenant with them I'll keep, ' 

The widow's God and guide I'll be ; 
Who sow in tears, in joy shall reap 
The harv^ests of prosperity." 
Two minors, of two widows, met in need ! 

EiyiZA one, a blond, a beauty brave ; 
Dark Andrew he, and able scarce to read ; 

But both did Christian culture need and crave: 
These wed, and thenceforth work their upward way. 

At home she helps him into Congress halls ; 
Indeed, they help each other night and day, 

Up in the world, within The White House walls ! 
Trace back their lot ! See "Andrew" at the feet 

Of his "Eliza" learn to read and write. 
Till (ne'er in school a day) he can compete 
With learn-ed men of legislative might ! 
That cabin view is of earth's very best — 

Eliza teaching that young tailor there — 
Till to ev'n traitors, she's of truth the test. 

And fills his life all full of fervent prayer. 
Aye, view again ! A Christian cavalcade 

Is driven beyond the long deep rebel lines ; 
And she who leads, betrayed but least afraid. 

Is that shy woman — how her face there shines ! 
Good, hopeful, patient, haggard, pale. 

How rebels half confess her rights and cause ; 
And feel her principles will hence prevail — 

This woman seems as wise as ever was ! 
. Let children's children rally round her chair ; 
The White House walls echo her winged prayer ; 
Her Bible on her tomb be carved with care ! 



c-y 



/ f^% 



K. ^ 




-MRS. PRKST. ANDREW JOHNSON. 




PREST. JOHNSON'S DAUGHTER, MARTHA. 
(MRS; PlATTERSON.) 



MOTHKRS AND DAUGHTERS. 23 

TRFSIDENT JOHNSON'S DAUGHTERS, MARTHA AND MARY. 

[Martha Johnson Patterson officiated in the White House 
chiefly for her parents. She was like her father, dark and 
efficient. Her husband w as U. S. Senator. She was partially 
assisted by Mrs Stover, her sister Mary, who was a blond like 
their mother, and had with her three children, which with Mrs. 
Patterson's two, and invited ones of the town, made a plenty of 
fun even when their Grandpa was being pulverized under a vain 
impeachment. The daughters suffered like their father and 
mother in war time ] (Read Ps. cxxxvii, and Ixxxiii, 5.) 

'Tis hard to realize to day 

The tides of sorrow in the South; 
How the Secessionists had sway, 

By cruel sword and cannon's mouth; 
And harder yet to understand 

How Eastern Tennesseans held 
Their love so firm for father-land, 

Where every shelter might be "shelled." 

So wicked were the scenes of wasting war! 

There Mary Stover 'mid the suff 'rers stood, 
For all on earth she felt worth living for 

Had fled before the hungry, fiery flood. 
The father of her children chose to serve 

Our humane cause, and called from home, 
He prayed that Providence would then preserve 

His Christian house till he could hither come. 

Still Mary Stover soon a widow stood ! 

Her children sad are cherished by her Sire 
(Who risked his person for the public good) 

And in his \Vhite House have their heart's desire. 
They're all more blest than any body knows! 

The Nation's safe! and so successful now, 
Ev'n Grandma's gratitude, too, overflows. 

As all before the Heavenly Father bow. 

While Martha Patterson, most patient still, 

Serving her country with excessive care. 
With hardly time to wish the heavenly will. 

Or practice leisurely her love of pra) er, 
Does honor as " First Lady of the Land." 

She says: " We're from the hills of Tennessee; 
We always could ourselves quite well command. 

And more than this they must not ask of me." 
Behold //rr.?(f//" command that White House band ! 
Ev'n when arraigned their Nation's Chief doth stand, 
Her happy children cheer on every hand ! 



24 OUR PREbfDENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. PRESIDENT U. S GRANT. 

[Mrs. Julia (Dent) Grant was married at her birth-place in 
Missouri, Aug. 22, 1848, and went with her husband onto a farm, 
which he called "Hardscrabble." She bore him three sons and 
one daughter. In sickness and health, in want and in wealth, 
she encouraged and aided him, often caring for others in dis- 
tress. She was a prudent woman, and a proud and praying wife 
and mother. Passing from poverty up to the White House, her 
domestic administration was admirable. Her bearing in public 
and private life from infancj' to age, was beautiful as Ma^-, and 
harmonious as music] (Read Proverbs xiv, 1-34 ) 

The woman of the greatest worth; 

Against whom nothing can be said; 
Whose name is honored o'er the earth, 
In realms where it is heard and read; 
Who more than kept her marriage vow, 

Whate'er her husband's wants or wealth, 
To love him truly, high or low, 

In good or ill, sickness or health — 
//er lo3^al brow wears laurels now ! 
So much that's beautiful, that's sweet, that's brave 

Is in this wifely woman's will and way. 
Which saved her husband to his country save. 

We fain would set her worth in full array. 
But there's no language that can laud too much 

Her patient service, when he was so poor, 
His bootless toil had the " Hardscrabble " touch, 

And dismal want was waiting at the door. 
O, what a model for all wives of men 

Who work by day to win home's dail}* bread. 
And sometimes sink beneath such btirdens then 

That they indeed half wish themselves were dead ! 
And what a lesson is her later life, 

80 womanly in all that wdcked w'ar, 
So straight and simple in the scenes of strife; 
And in the White House which they waited for ! 

No woman there had greater wisdom shown. 

Or shared more kindly its domestic cares. 
And made her husband's honor mold her own; 

In practice of her prudence and her prayers, 
She made theWhite House what it should be — Home! — 

And typic of our country and our time. 
And when around ///<? world they while and roam. 

Courted by queens and kings in their best prime, 
And to our coasts they hast'ning, happy come, 
Of woman's excellence she seems the sum I 




MRS. PREST. U. S. GRANT. 




PliKST. (tKANTS DAUGHTKK, NKLLIK. 
(MRS. 8AKTOKIS.) 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 25 

A PET OF THE NATION WAS PRESIDENT GRANT'S "NELLIE." 

[President and Mrs. Grant gave a suitable wedding to their 
only daughter, Nellie, in the famous East Room of the White 
House, Ma5' 21, 1S74. She married an educated, well-attired 
Engli-hman, Algernon Sartoris, who wished the oegis of her 
name, but made her lot a lesson on international weddings for 
the 3'oung ladies of every land, and offended the pride of the 
American people, who will prize his loyal wife to the last.] 
(Read II Cor. vi, 14.) 

An Anglomaniacal mood 

Had moved tipon the public mind, 
Till countless girls counted it good 

Toward foreign "class" to feel inclined; 
And not a lesson in our land 

Were needed more, than now, to teach 
Girls' hearts here how to give their hand 

And not, as brides, have heartless breach. 

Women here fancy foreign ivedlock well, 

And really feel they've reached both fame and rank, 
Yet soon have trials no true heart can tell, 

And think at last they've jr//" alone to thank. 
True beauteous daughters have been oft betrayed 

By boughten titles, or babels of tongues, 
Till no dear kindred can do equal aid, 

And right the rashness, or redress the wrongs. 

No ladies now in the United States 

Have nobler graces than had Nellik Grant; 
Full many a suitor for the maiden waits, 

Men wise and willing to meet ei'er}' want. 
Yet not her Mother nor Majestic Sire 

Could change the passion of their petted child 
To vow ''obediejicc'' to his bold desire 

Who had her goodness to himself beguiled. 

If Nellie 'd known he chiefly loved her name — 

Like those who marry women for their ivealtli — 
She might have found one fitted to her fame, 

With here a Home of happiness and health; 
But now this famous NEI.1.IE Grant affair 

Will self possession o'er the world enforce, 
And from this Presidential case prepare 

All virtuotts damsels to avoid divorce; 
For this bride says: "To my firm bond I bow; 
I must forever keep my marriage vow! " [now! 

So yet, "The Nation's pet," is Grant's dear "Nellie" 



26 OUR PRH^DENTS' WIVES, 

MRS. PRESIDENT RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

[Mrs. Lucy (Webb) Hayes was perhaps the most beautiful 
type of a practical Bible Woman that ever led the society of 
Washington. She was born in Ohio, but of New England and 
Va. ancestry, was educated WMth her brothers by their widowed 
mother, at the "Wesleyan University" and "Seminary." She 
married Mr. Hayes in 1852, and his progress in war and peace 
was largely due to her popularity and lucid piety. She died of 
apoplexy in 1889. Her life-size portrait is in the Presidential 
:Mansion and should hold an honored place.] (Read the II 
Epistle of John and Gen v, 8.) 

Lo ! There she stands as large as life ! 

Her wisdotii speaketh from the wall, 
The patriot warrior's pious wife, 

Whose life's a lessou for us all ! 
At work, in camp, in peace and war, 

Her life was perfect with her Lord ; 
Whom she loved, lived and waited for, 

Till welcomed to her last reward ! 

"The EIvECT Lady" of the loving John, 

That he in vision, even then, foresaw, 
As by the painter in that picture drawn, 

Embodies gospel and God's beaming law. 
That product, both of Bible precepts born 

And master art, in form and heart and mind 
Doth well the White House wall and Home adorn ; 

A welcome keepsake for all woman kind. 

But not the portrait in that public place, 

By gifted art, observers best engage, 
Speaking refinement from an inspired face ; 

But her example, here, bears on each age ; 
Helps virtuous character in every case ; 

Urges all cowards their convictiors own. 
And raises woman in her world and race. 

To learn God's law, that 'man's not good alone!" 

Then let that likeness there forever last. 

Among the portraits of the Presidents ; 
That passers-by may thus behold the past, 

And realize how much it represents ; 
For here have women helped, as well as men, 

To make Home-Life have moral-loving hope, 
To teach the future b}- what here hath been, 

To scan earth's brightness by its broad'niug scope, 
And make more keen the Nation's moral ken, 
Theji Lucy Hayes shall win, if not till then! 







MRS. PREST. R. K. HAYK 




PRESIDENT C^AKFIKM) S MorHKIJ. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 27 

PRESIDKNT GARFIELD'S MOTHER ELIZA. BALLOU. 

[Mrs. Eliza Ballon Garfield was born in 1802 and died 18S8. 
She was 78 years old when her son went with her and his wife 
into tbe White House. Like Mary Washington, she had been 
"the making" of her orphan boy's character and consequent 
career. Her husband when dying said: "Eliza, I have planted 
four saplings in the woods, I leave them to your care." How she 
cared for them the seqnel shows. Her picture is taken j^onder- 
ing over her open Bible.] (Read I Samuel i, 27.) 

The autumn sun is setting now, 

And passing down a perfect da}^; 
A halo bright is on its brow; 

I love to watch it launch away ! 
'Twas somewhat so I used to see 

This aged woman, years ago, 
Seem like that setting sun to me, 

Moving serene, majestic, slow. 
Toward the deep eternity. 

That Mother of our Martyred Magistrate, 

Was left a widow in his infancy, 
So poor she planted what her orphans ate, 

And harvesting the ears, did count to see 
What number could be spared for her supply; 

She working, weak and widowed as she was, 
The woodman's strokes with all her strength did try^ 

Yet kept the hope that every Christain has. 

She was of Gallic and blue Yankee blood, 

New England Puritan's ideas and type; 
So, gladly met her "glorious motherhood" 

And kept home's fruitage, holy, fresh and ripe ! 
A mother so mature seems more than made. 

Whose children are so chastened ere their birth 
They rise to excellence, as without aid, 

And win renown with their own natal worth. 

Her "Baby Boy " went battling for the right. 

Borne off on war's most bounding tidal wave; 
She watched her Savior walking in his sight 

And said: "The Christ ni}- soldier son can save ! " 
And when to Congress and the White House grown, 

She looks upon him there with laurel crowned, 
"All things are for the best," her faith doth own, 

Her gratitude hath grown beyond all bounds; 
But when she cried: "They've killed my Baby Boy! "" 
Her grief soon hushed in heavenly greeting's joy! 



:28 OUR PRljSIDEINTS' WIVES, 

PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD'S WIFE. 

[Mrs. Lucretia (Rudolph) Garfield, like her husband, was 
born in "Western Reserve," Ohio, and "kept school and boarded 
round." She also had classes in drawing- and pain tin grand helped 
prepare their boys for college. She married Garfield in 1858, and 
bore him seven children. Near his death he said : " M3' wife is 
so prudent I've not been diverted once from niN' work to explain 
away any mistake of hers. When there is most public clamor, 
she IS most cool. She is perfectly unstampedable."] (Read Acts 
iv, 14.) 

This model Christian mother is 

Completely an American, 
Whose husband knew her wholly his, 

Fit helpmeet for her famous man ! 
A teacher, too, of truth and taste. 

Her conduct has a complete whole ; 
With changeless will and wisdom chaste, 

She stood quite 'Uinstavipedable ! " 

"We see her waiting through our wicked war ; 

Her buoyant faith bends o'er each battle-field, 
Till final peace arrives that she's prayed for, 

And Heaven's hands the wounds have touched and 
Then, v^heu in"vStates United" he doth stand, [healed, 

A legislator in high courts of law, 
She now, as helpmeet, nerves his mighty hand, 

A safe adviser as earth ever saw. 

Prom first to last, in learning and in life, 

She was a consort of the wisest kind ; 
Well given to Garfield as his Godly wife. 

Endowed most fully with a faithful mind; 
The prudent mate of that wise President, 

She honored us, and we should honor her, 
And let our women — with their lot content — 

Conform to her's their Christian character. 

Perhaps no President e'er was more proud 

Of what he called his ' belter half," than hers; 
Por she shrank from no fate, until his shroud 

Encomi)assed him; and thence, all that occurs 
To hold her guileless heart to human gaze, 

And have all nations know and laud her name. 
Her prudence above princesses to praise — 

'Twas then she seemed to fear to share his fame; 
Yet, where mankind his monument doth raise 
Her sad delight whiles her declining days ! 





MKS I'llKST .lA.MK.S A. GAllFIKLT). 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 29 

PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S WIFE AND SISTER. 

[Vice President Chester A. Arthur followed Garfield to pre- 
side in the White House. His wife, the mother of his two beau- 
tiful children, and daughter of the distinguished Lieut. Herndon, 
who sank with his ship in the Mexican sea, was recently dead,, 
and Arthur himself seemed submerged in a sea of sorrow. Her 
likeness he kept in his room wreathed daily with roses, and 
placed her memorial window in the church where he worshiped. 
He called his sister, Mrs. McElroy, daughter of Kev. Ur. Arthur, 
to his aid. Also Mrs. Carlisle, aud ladies of his Cabinet, were- 
kindly attentive.] (Read Psalm cvii, 23-43.) 

Its uice to have a Sister now, 

Like saintly Madamr McElroy, 
When to bereavement nations bow 

And grief o'ershadows Arthur's joy. 
"His Excellency" can, too, enlist 

Dames of his Cabinet to come, 
And Madame Carlysle, to assist 

And make theWhite House more like ''Home.'^ 

Bnt there's one woman waiting on the wall. 

The President's own privacy adorus; 
A smiling lady, neither large nor small, 

Whose face 's so winning it from folly warns. 
Her memory is matchless as a wife; 

Her influence her offspring e'er have felt; 
This loving consort hath so kept his life, 

She now seemed with him when each night he kneltt 

This was no fiction, but a worthy fact. 

That Arthur, and Van Buren, from his State, 
For no new consorts ever could contract; 

As loyal widowers they loved to wait. 
Though person and position gave them power 

To mate with partners most appropriate 
To act as hostess many a high-toned hour, 

And stand as aid in all the scenes of State. 

Arthur's devotion to his honored dead — 

His children's mother he hath cherished so, 
No lady would he as his life-mate wed; 

Nor sought the Nation his secrets to know. 
This new example hath ennobling power; 

Helps purify our hurrying populace; 
It sanctifies the faith, in sorrow's hour, 

Through this republic, and throughout the race; 
For such fond, conjugal fidelity 
Shameth all shades of sensuality. 



30 OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES, 

PRESIDKNT CLEVELAND'S YOUNG WIFE. 

[Mrs. Frances (Folsom) Cleveland, born in Buffalo, Jul}' 21, 
1862, was the first President's wife married in his own Executive 
Mansion (1886.) At her wedding dinner and other times she 
declined intoxicants. January 26, 1887, the W. C. T. U of Va., 
^'Resolved, That our heartfelt thanks are hereby tendered to 
Mrs. Frances F. Cleveland, for the position she has taken in the 
chief social circles of the Nation, as a total abstainer from all 
intoxicating drinks, and, we pray God's blessing on her young 
life, and on her home, believing that history will applaud her 
action as all sincere minds even now, approve her motives."] 
(Habakuk ii, 15.) 

That White House still 's the ''Natio7is Home! " 

It's bright young house-wife is a bride, 
The country's guests have hither come, 

To share the Presidential pride. 
The wisdom, fashion, and the wealth 
Commingle round the social board, 
And here and there, "They're drinking health" — 
The Hostess' glass hath zvater poured ! 
There's divine beauty in so bold a deed: 

There's moral courage matchless in the case; 
So frank and happy, it hath friendly heed, 

More pleasing, too, for both its time and place. 
Aye, this young hostess other crowns hath won; 

On other subjects and in every scene. 
Never a damsel, nor. a dame hath done [queen. 

More Christly things that might have crowned a 

She with a person perfect, well possessed, 

A prudent life; pious, loving and pure. 
With blooming health of soul and body blessed. 

With sentiments so well settled and sure, 
This young loved hostess of the "Land's White 

Reveals again the gift of valient grace, [House " 
Inspiring her, as Presidential spouse, 

To reach her hand of ruth to help the race. 

W'ilh thanks to God for giving "Adam's ale," 

This brave, yet beautiful, young far famed bride. 
With self possession, neither flushed nor pale, 

Here gives her course as our whole country's guide; 
That married women and wise maidens, too, 

Might all at at once, and will forever more, 
Eschew bad drinks, as all good Christains do. 

And drive the wolf from every woman's door. 
Then, like the homebred, Heaven born Lucy Hayes 
Let coming days, too, Frances Ci.evei.and praise ! 




MRS. PRKST. GKOVER CLEVEI-AND. 



d 



J 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 31 

MISS ELIZABETH CLEVELAND. 

[Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, the President's sister, offici- 
ated as hostess in the Executive Mansion until his marriage in 
'86. She is the daughter of a distinguished Presbyterian divine, 
and heiself in every way a most estimable woman. The follow- 
ing is from her pen: " There is a majesty of right, a royalty of 
truth, which, in manifold forms, claims allegiance and argues its 
claim. God sees in the tearful cry of the bruised and baffled 
mother, sister, wife, His own argument for the utter extinction 
of intoxicating beverages, the suppression, root and branch, of 
the rum traffic, and in that cry He makes His argunient to 
men."— E. C's reply to Howard Crosby.] (Read Prov. xx, i.] 

Maiden Blistress of "Our Mansion ! " 

"I should smile ! " and shall I meet her? 
I'd expect a pulse expansion — 

No: of pleasure none 's completer; 
She 's the honest soul of honor; 

So delights in sense of duty, 
That as people look upon her 
They believe "she is a beauty! " 
She is moral forces filled with mental, 

Commonsensible, and kind, and solid, 
With a conscience wise — not accidental — 
And her views and virtues are all valid. 
A true woman, she's "a temp'rance worker; " 

And her sisters' claims she sees so clear 
That of duty she dares be no shirker, 

For Heaven heeds each home-made mother's tear! 

Such a person — safe in pure example, 

Prime in presence,prime in sense to see what's proper, 
Well may keep America's Home Temple, 

Nothing can stampede and nothing stop her 
In her care here to conserve her country; 

Prompting true sense of propriety, 
She is just the one to welcome gentry 

iVnd secure true sanction of society. 

So completely fit seemed fair Rose Ci.Evei.and, 

A symmetrical, high-minded hostess. 
One can look at like a clean-cut headland. 

Saying: Such ^^ Our Mansion's Maiden Mistress! '' 
O how many such, this side of heaven. 

Sooner maidens than be wives of mad men. 
And by Providence, it's best have proven 

To be no man's bride than brides of bad men; 
But to have such beauteous behavior 
They'll espouse and love their Lord and Savior! 



32 oiR PRL;^IDl:.^:■r^' wnns, 

:mrs. president benjamin harrison. 

[Mrs. Carrie (Scott). Harrison is the daughter of Professor 
Thomas Scott, D. D., of Oxford, Ohio, where she met in 1S50 and 
married in 1852 her distinguished husband, 'the}' were Bible 
teachers when .^.elected for the high Presidential office, and none 
of our Chief Executive people have possessed more decidedh* 
biblical characters. Indeed, to her we may say in this regard: 
"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them 
all."] (Prov. xxxi, 29.) 

'Twas in a social wedding scene, 

That God Incarnate gave them water; 

Pure drink brought to the bridal daughter 
Made known what marriage now doth mean — 
That virtue in the nuptial vow 

Stamps temp'rance on each time and station; 

Compels, indeed, this commendation, 
" But thou hast kept the best till now! " 

By this we boast not that these now are best 
Of all incumbents that have ever been; 
That Host and Madame Harrison here mean 

Their White House taste more than what's been to test; 

But seems it boasting, as by some, to say: 

This Mistress of tbat Mansion has maintained 
The place so pleasing not a soul's complained ? 

She's stampt impressions that shall more than stay. 

She has laid plans to help enlarge the place; 

Her modes of change high architects commend; 

Her practiced life helps real progress lend, 
Adding a grandeur and enduring grace. 
Her House is still a standard " Christain Houie,^^ 

Embosoms, yet, both aged and the yotmg; 

And not a word from wicked pen or tongue. 
Of lisp't complaint hath to deponent come ! 

From "Abby Adams," down to " Francis C — " 
There's found no excellence assigned to fame, 
That hath not nourished this new Hostess' name: 

Nor will the future's best more faithful be ! 

But though some turned about their haughty backs 
Upon our valiant, browned, and vet'ran liraves. 
She o'er them grieves; with tears waters their graves, 

And cottld with comforts fill their old uapsacks — 

Who lisps a line this last Chief Lady lacks! 




-MRS PRKST. KENJAMIN HArRISON. 
DIKD IN -Tim WHITE HOUSE" OCT. ir, IS! 




PRK8T. BKN.T. HARRISON'S DAUGHTER, MARY 
(MRS. MCKEE.) 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 33 

HARRISON'S DAUGHTER AND HER "bABY MC KEE.'' 

[ The family group of age, middle age, early manhood and 
infancy, from venerable Dr. Scott to the Shoe-dealer's "Baby 
Boy," from great grand sire to great grandson, must close our 
White House Sketches now. The following impromptu narra- 
tive by one who met the Presidential party at Glenwood Springs, 
Colorado, in iSgr, will perhaps help the readers to feel still more 
at home with the families in our Federal Mansion whom we 
choose to be models before the eyes of God and men.] (Read 
Luke xii, 1-12. j 

I never saw that ''Baby'' yet ! 

Its i\IoTHF:R I have iiierel}^ seen; 
Her friendly face I can't forget, 

Nor what must mean kind eyes so keen! 
I met her in a motly host, 

With Rocky Mountains waiting round, 
Yet I admired her manner most; 

It had a. fitness so profound. 

As we exchanged a chosen word or two, 

While trending slowly through the whirling train, 
I was surprised to hear: "I've heard of you, 

And shall be pleased, if we shall meet again! " 
This is a sample of the pleasing soul. 

Expressing from her very Princess' face, 
The culture of such Christian self-control 

As lends a grandeur to a lady's grace. 

When such a white, calm soul is seen, even where 

The populace will push each one his way. 
There is a something so suggestive there 

It stems like sunshine of a lovely day. 
'Tis like her Mother's most enlight'ning mood, 

That moves serene amidst emergencies. 
With God's own impulses supremely good. 

And holding hands of faith fondl}- in His. 

But, 1 would see the President's grandson! 

Whose sire doth buy and sell good boots and shoes, 
Like Roger Sherman, loved of Washington, 

And not ashamed of what all men shall use; 
Indeed, I want to see " Baby McKee! " 

For if he lives till I have left the stage. 
He'll have to bear '-Grand-Pa's big hat,'" may be. 

And look like "Uncle vSam" our nation's sage! 
God grant the sons and daughters all to see 
Anil Iiear our Lord say: " Love and follow Me! " 



34 A PEERESf OF PRESIDENTS. 

MRS. H.\RRIET BEECHER STOWE. 

[Harriet Beecher was born in Ivitchfield, Conn., June 14, 1812, 
and married Professor Colvin E Stowe, of Lane Theological 
Seminary, Cincinnati, in 1836. She wrote many entertaining- 
and useful works. The best of which she named "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin." It illustrated the evils of Slavery and so inspired the 
love of liberty, that, more than any other one cause, it roused 
the Rebellion, freed the Slaves and saved the Republic] (Read 
The Triumphal Song of Debora in Judges v.) 

Of all New England's noted towns, 

Whose women have their worth enhanced, 
And o'er the world earned wide renowns, 

And virtnes all divine advanced, 
Old Litchfield fairly owns the lead; 

For Harriet Beecher here had birth, 
AVho wrote what all men like to read — 

The thoughts that influence all the earth! 

When "Uncle Tom's" old-time log "Cabin" came, 

Three breathless students stood abreast and read 
Its columns hung on the high college-frame, 

While seven more stood where to seize their stead. 
How vividly such scenes have ever since 

The value of that book brought into view 
And yet its merits ever more evince, 

Till it hath thrilled all nations, through and through. 

The humane world inhales its moral worth; 

It disenthralled the denizens it thrilled; 
It gave to Liberty Lincolu's " new birth," •' 

And treason, too, it kindly, truly killed. 
O ! builder of a book so near divine, — 

Whose numerous volumes were none made in vain, 
We reverent look on every book like thine, 

To count the eternal causes the}^ contain. 

And so thy works we see will follow thee, 

All filled forever with thy faithfulness; 
From all the races thou hast rendered free, 

Shall millions blend thy memory to bless, 
And generations ceasless join to say: 

Thanks be to God ! Thy thoughts have been his gift. 
The beauties of thy love their lives obey. 

And every human lot they heavenward lift. 
And swell the measure of th}- moral sway. 
Till all oppression shall have passed away ! 

*See Eiucolu's Gettysburg address. 




MRS. HARRIETT BEKCIIRR 8TOWE. 




MRS PKEST. WM. MCKINLEY. 



OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES. 35 

MRS. WILLIAM MC KINLEY. 

[President McKinley was born in 1843, and married Miss 
Ida Saxton, of Canton, O., in 1871. Her father was an editor 
aud financier, and she helped him in his bank, was intelligent, 
educated, accomplished and beautiful, well suited to be Major 
McKinley's wife. They were given two daughters, but one 
died in infancy, and the other in her fifth year, which bereave- 
ment and her father's death, about the same time, filled her 
cup so full of grief that she became a great and sublime sufferer 
and very sympathetic toward others in sorrow. Her husband 
has deeply pitied, loved andhonored her. Their conjugal piety 
is both pathetic and potential before the world. " Blessed are 
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,]" — (Matt. v:5.) 

In former wives of Presidents 

All excellences seem expressed; 
But in the current of events, 

One rises now above the rest 
In meekness of her chastened mind; 

Who, blessing others, is most blest, 
And bids her country to be kind 

To human nature when distressed. 

A hallowed pathos round her home appears 

Where she in beauteous well-shared love abides, 
With him who's watched o'er all her wedded years, 

Yet proudly o'er the Nation now presides 
With such capacity and kindness blent 

That he's the wonder of the world to day, 
While bowing heads beyond the seas are bent 

To hear what this sage President will say. 

His i,ADY OE THE WHiTEHOUSE leads the van; 

And bears this study-lesson still beyond: 
" Let all men heed this loved, meek-hearted man. 

Who waves to all the world his helping wand!" 
And let their climax thus the list here close. 

With such complaisance, simple and complete. 
That like dear "Sharon's loved and dewy rose," 

Successors will their perfumes well repeat, 
And help to heal the world of half its woes. 



Denver, A. D. 1900 Thos. Nelson Haskell, 1,. H. D. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S 
FIRST PROCLAMATION. 

(THB DAY OF MCKINLEY'S DEATH.) 

''By the President of the United States, a proc- 
lamation: 

''A terrible bereavement has befallen our people. 
The President of the United States has been struck 
down; a crime committed not only against the 
chief magistrate, but against every law-abiding 
and liberty-loving citizen. 

"■President McKinley crowned a life of largest 
love for his fellow men, of most earnest endeavor 
for theif welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude, 
and both the way in which he lived his life and the 
way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met 
his death, will remain forever a precious heritage 
of our people. 

"■It is meet that we, as a nation, express our 
abiding love afid reverence for his life, our deep 
sorrow for his untimely death. 

"Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, Presi- 
dent of the United States of America, do appoint 
Thursday next, September ig, the day on which the 
body of the dead President will be laid in its last 
earthly resting place, as a day of mourning and 
prayer throughout the United States. I earnestly 
recommend all the people to assemble on that day 
in their respective places of divine worship, there 
to bow down in submission to the will of Almighty 
God, and to pay out of full hearts their homage of 
love and reverence to the great and good President 
whose death has smitten the nation with bitter grief . 

''In witness whereof I have hereunto set my 
hand and caused the seal of the United States to be 
affixed. 

"Dofie at the City of Washington, the 14th day 
of September, A. D. igoi, and of the independefice 
of the United States, the 126th. 

{Seal) THEODORE ROOSE VEL T. ' ' 

"By the President: 

fOHN HA Y, Secretafy of State.'' 




WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 

BORN JANUARY 29, 1843. DIED SEPTEMBER 14, 1901. 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

BECAME PRESIDENT SEPTEMBER 14, 1901, 



"PRESIDENT MCKINLEY'S DEAD!" 37 

[President Wm. McKinley was shot in Buffalo, Sept. 
6th, 1901 and died Sept, 14th, crowning his noble life with 
a still nobler heroic and forgiving death. He said, when 
shot by Leon Czolgosz : "May God forgive him!" He 
died breathing the longing of his heart: "Nearer, my 
God, to thee," and Theodore Roosevelt became President. 

McKinley's loyalty to his lovingwife was so wonderful 
to the last that the world will be made by it more loveable 
and lovely forever. The following impromptu hymn was 
recorded as repeated to a weeping assembly in the Cham- 
ber of Commerce, Denver, on the morning of his death.] 
(read heb. xi:4) 

An Impromptu Prayer. 

By T. N.H. 

O Thou in whom we live, 
Who thine own Son dids't give 

To save our race. 
In this astonished hour. 
O'er zvhich death's shadows lower. 
Reveal thy sovereigft power 

And soothing grace. 

Our people all in tears. 

Have mingling hopes and fears 

Of what shall be. 
Since now the station's head 
Is numbered with the dead, 
We zuould, O Lord, be led 

Thenceforth by Thee. 

Come, in our striken grief 
And grant us strong relief 

In our distress. 
Bid Anarchy subside; 
A7id since our Chief hath died. 
Do thou his Follower guide 

And greatly bless. 

And may his Family 
As much a model be 

As zvas the dead, 
A type for future years — 
( Though seen noiv through our tears) 
Of all that loves and cheers 

To heaven led! 



38 OUR PRESIDENTS' WIVES. 



Mrs. Prest. Theodore Roosevelt. 

Mrs. Edith K. (Carow) Roosevelt was born in New York 
and educated in Seminaries of that city. From a child she was 
a favorite of the President; after the death of his first wife, nee 
Miss Alice Lee. of Boston, she became the faithful Stepmother 
of his little daughter Alice and has borne him five other children, 
Theodore, Ethel, Archibald, Kermit and Quentin; has been a 
model cliild, maiden, wife and mother, and, with all Mrs. McKin- 
ley's loveliness, she has health of body, mind and heart, of which 
her country women may well be proud, (read prov. xxxil 

With pity for the Widow's pain 

Whose noble Spouse hath passed away, 
We gladly turn from tears again 

To tell of the divine display 
Of Providential love and care, 

In calling one to take her place 
Who is as faithful, fond and fair, 

A child of God and cherished grace. 

The pathos of the presidential love — 

That lent such perfume to the sacred place — 
And this new Presidentess now, doth prove 

How rich and pure is our Republic's race 
Of women, glad in glorious motherhood, 

That hath our Country's homebred children cheered 
And brought to heart all human brotherhood, — 

Like England's Queen, whom all the world revered. 

We bless Almighty God, Maker of heaven 

And earth, Author of providence and prayer, 
That He unto our land and time hath given 

Such proof He keeps our Country in His care. 
We bring to Him this Mother and her brood, 

And ask that every hour in every day 
He'll give to them all needed help and good, 

While all the world is watching every way. 

Nor let this be oppressive to their thought. 

But fill their journals full of heavenborn joy; 
And so, the world will be such wisdom taught 

That pleasant homelife shall all hearts employ ; 
And when the burdened Chieftain bows in prayer, 

Upon the bosom of his family. 
May Heaven send down this benediction there: 

"A Model President will I make thee ! " 
Denver. Sept. 14TH, 1901. T. N. Haskell. 




MRS PREST. ROOSEVELT. 




.y^^C^^-^^ ^y'hi^^u-i^ -^?^^^L^e . 
<2 —j^ — 



SOME 

WASHINGTON SERMONS 



ON 



Special Occasions 



PREACHED 
BY 



Rev. T. N. Haskell, L. H. D. 



In His First Pastorate. 



Denver: 

Published by Carson-Harper Co. 

1900. 



©0/HTENT5 



PAGE 

I. Duty and interest; 3 

First Address in Washington, May 11. 1853. " 

II. Immortality and Its Issues; 19 

To President Pierce and 1st Presbyterian Cliurch. 

III. Heavenward Hope; 35 

First Sermon to His Own People. 

IV. "The Church of God, 55 

Wliich He hath purchased with His own blood." 

V. History of the Bible; 73 

Before Buchanan's Inauguration. 

VI. God, Providence and President's Oath; .... 102 
Before Lihcoln's Inauguration. 

VII. American Soldier's Mission; 119 

To Soldiers going to save Washington. 

VIII. On Assassination of Lincoln; 133 

To the Bereft Congregation. 

IX. Prayer and Providence; 159 

Death of Buttler, Brooks and Evans. 
Dr. Noble's Letter, Etc. 

X. The Heart of our Wars; 165 

Ensign Bagley and Lincoln's Letter to Widow Bixby. 

XI. Reply to Redpath's Eulogy of Davis 190 

"The Ablest Review I ever read:" Sen. Chas. Townsend. 



Puty jind Interest. 



By Rev. Thomas Nelson Haskell. 

His First Address in Washington, D, C. 

To a full house in Fourth Presbyterian Church, 

Thursday evening:. May 11, 1854. 



Text— Luke XVni:29. 

Jesus said: ''Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath 
left house or parents, or brother, ©r wife, or children for the kingdom 
of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present 
time, and in the world to come everlasting life." 



The whole Universe is the rightful domain of 
God. Its highest good is an object which he in- 
variably pursues. Upon this his heart is set and 
his purpose fixed, and although he is immutably 
happy in himself, his happiness is inseparable 
from this his pursuit. He has no depraved pleasure 
to gratify— no erring judgment to mislead; his na- 
ture and his attributes are such that he may be 
said to seek the highest good of his creatures and 
his own happiness follows, or to pursue his own 
pleasure and the good of a Universe ensues. With 
him to gratify himself is benevolent, and to seek 
the good of his Universe is to please himself. And 
all holy beings in heaven have their wills con- 
formed to this same divine pleasure; this conform- 
ity is their duty; its fruit is eternal glory. 



4 HASKEI<I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

It is not thus with finite and fallen man. He 
has a strong constitutional tendency to self-grati- 
fication which misleads him. He also errs in judg- 
ment, and often cannot tell what is most for his 
interest. A voice above him dictates duty; while 
the cry of selfishness and lust within him is con- 
stantly vociferating— ease, comfort, interest; and 
his meagre judgment, teased to incessant decisions 
upon matters of mere interest and comfort, is too 
feeble and too sluggish to rendei safe and timely 
verdicts. He has not prescience to penetrate the 
future and grasp all his interests at a glance; nor 
to determine what apparent interests will conflict 
and neutralize each other; and his experience 
teaches him that momentary gratifications and 
more protracted pleasures have their inherent bit- 
ter and secreted thorns; while the apparent inter- 
ests of one hour often expel the pleasures of a 
year, and the slightest gratification may blast his 
dearest joys. Poor, fallen man! in himself he finds 
no unerring guide to the true bliss of being. He 
seems made for happiness; his spontaneous aspira- 
tions are toward it; but seeking it he fails. His 
powers are all finite and his passions derange their 
action. His reason shines but dimly and his sel- 
fishness seeks nothing certain; and his moral sense, 
that dear daguerreotype of Deity, he has so de- 
faced, it reflects the divine spirit so faintly, that 
even his involuntary longings lead astray and he 
finds that it is not in man that walketh to direct 
his steps. 

Self-interest as the ruling end of such finite 
minds in a world like this must defeat itself. With 
quick sagacity and large judgment, it may secure 
the external joys of life; but the deeper, the immor- 
tal pleasures of the soul, it cannot gain; it does 



ON DUTY AND INTEREST. 5 

not know them; but it forms an aching void it has 
no power to fill. Thus the selfish man lives in un- 
rest, and often in deep anguish. He seeks his own 
satisfaction, but is haunted by that selfishness that 
has made Satan miserable and hell terrible, and in 
the deep philosophy of his own complainings we 
read his history: "He lives hard; dies hard; and 
goes to hell at last." This is the sense in which 
to seek one's life is to lose it— self-seeking is self- 
defeat, self-torture, self-destruction; its fruit is bit- 
ter, its end is death. And poor human nature, if 
left to itself, would never act upon any higher 
principle nor achieve any nobler end. Sad, indeed, 
is that depravity which thus gropes in the dark 
without a guide, to develop only a downward des- 
tiny. But is there no remedy? And is short-sighted 
selfish man left without either deliverer or guid- 
ing principle that may be trusted? No! As in 
morals there is one virtue, and in art one true 
path, so to man's highest welfare there is one true 
guide, who is the "Way, the Truth and the Life," and 
He proclaims one ruling principle, which, if adopt- 
ed, must be successful. It is. Regard for the Gov- 
ernment of God— a principle at once reasonable 
and profitable— so reasonable, indeed, that none 
but an incarnate God could fully reveal it, and so 
profitable that it promises the highest joy of this 
present time and the eternal rewards of a future 
life. It was anounced by the Majesty of the Uni- 
verse in the person of a self-sacrificing Redeemer, 
and with such simplicity and assurance as none 
but a divine mediator could invent or adopt. It is, 
indeed, an abstract truth, but uttered in a most 
impressive, tangible form; a general principle, ex- 
hibited in specific examples of the most touching 
character. It is as if the divine Teacher contem- 



6 HASKKI<I<'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

plated on the one hand the interests of the kingdom 
of God, and on the other the highest good of every 
subject— grasping the entire divine government, 
temporal and eternal, over single hearts and a com- 
bined Universe, and blending with it all, the condi- 
tion of each self-denying person before him, in that 
most trying of all ages. He at once commended 
the government of Jehovah and comforted every 
loyal subject by declaring, after the most solemn 
assertion of verity, that no man can act from an 
enlightened sense of duty, a true regard for the 
government of God, without thereby gaining his 
highest temporal and eternal welfare; that no man 
could sacrifice the endearments of home and the 
society of parents, of a bosom companion, and of 
even his own offspring, from regard to duty to 
God and his government, without receiving "mani- 
fold more in this present time, and in the world 
to come everlasting life." This gives to man an 
unerring motto— it is Harmony with his Maker— or, 
in a more general term, which will be more readily 
received, it is simply Duty. He who adopts this 
motto, as illumined by the Spirit and the Word of 
God, will find in the end that he has not gone 
astray. He may not always understand its mean- 
ing; it may even cost him deep and protracted so- 
licitude to know what duty is and bring his mind 
into intense agony at times; but this very solicitude 
will be a blessing: it will call into healthy, vigor- 
ous exercise both his mental and his moral pow- 
ers, and it is the earnest of the aid of God. Thus 
Duty as a motto has many advantages over Inter- 
est as the ruling incentive. Duty cultivates both 
the intellect and conscience; while interest, or sel- 
fishness, perverts the judgment and exalts the pas- 
sions. Duty rectifies the life, purifies the heart, 



ON DUTY AND INTEREST. 7 

and it lifts the soul to God. Selfish Interest binds 
it down to things of sense, folds it in a napkin and 
buries it in the earth. Duty leads to highest in- 
terest, while interest thwarts itself and leads the 
soul astray forever. Duty sought is interest gained; 
give it the precedence and they are identical: do 
as we will they are inseparable. This union of 
duty and interest— this harmony of the Will of 
God and the welfare of his creatures— is the doc- 
trine of Jesus Christ in the text. Its truth is 
readily acknowledged in theory, but generally 
denied in practice, and like first truths in mathe- 
matics, because it is so readily admitted, it is the 
more difficult satisfactorily to demonstrate; but 
because it is practically denied, it is more import- 
ant that it be demonstrated clearly and frequently 
before the people. It may be established in va- 
rious ways. Could I portray the particular duties 
and interests of each individual in this assembly, 
as they lie adjusted and filed away in the under- 
standing of Omniscience, the union of duty and 
interest would be apparent; but this is beyond my 
province. Could we all agree upon any particular 
theory of accountability, or adopt any one worthy 
ground of moral obligation, from these we might 
prove our proposition; but here we would disagree 
either in theories or the use of terms or misunder- 
stand each other; and I wish to demonstrate it by a 
variety of principles universally admitted and by 
general statements which will be felt to be true 
as soon as uttered and thus in a manifold and pro- 
gressive manner bring out the relation as a living 
verity. 

It may be clearly and climactically proved, I 
think, by the following methods: 



S HASKELI, S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

1. The universally acknowledgeci attributes of 
God demaud tlie uuiou of Duty and Interest. 

2. The generally admitted characteristics of 
moral government demand it. 

3. The necessary condition and character of 
moral agents, whoever they may be in earth or 
heaven, demand it. 

4. The mental and moral constitution of man 
demands it. 

5. His general experience in this life demands 
it. 

G. And His combined experience in this and the 
future life as revealed in the Bible and moral sense 
of mankind proves it, and so the subject evolves 
the Immortality of Souls. 

[i) The attributes of God— his wisdom, power, 
righteousness and goodness forbid the separation 
of duty and interest. To suppose Ilim unable to 
devise a system of duties which should be adapted 
to the highest good of being, and of those beings 
on whom the duties are imposed, is to suppose de- 
fects in the divine capacity and character. To say 
God could not connect duty and interest is to limit 
his wisdom and deny his Omnipotence. To say he 
could do it but would not. Is to impeach his justice 
and deny his benevolence— and thus attribute to 
God weakness, malevolence and folly. But the 
human mind would be compelled even then to go 
back of all its sophistry and in its higher nature, 
etill read the witness of an infinite and perfect 
God, who can, who does adapt precious interest to 
righteous action; whose every attribute that goes to 
constitute him an adorable Deity, renders it im- 
possible for him to institute a plan of obligation 
that shall not bless willing obedience, vindicate his 
own authority, and promote the general welfare. 



(2) The Xanire of Moral government forbida 
the sei>aration of dnty and interest- Denj the 
anion of duty and destiny and we deny the very 
existence of moral government. This is ime. be- 
cause as we have seen, this union is coexistent with 
the divine Governor: and were there no moral 
Governor there c-ould be no moral govemment. 
Moreover. the idea of right asserts that Laws bind- 
ing on a responsible agent must be a<iapteii to the 
g(K)*i of being: that this is not general merely but 
univereal: that such must be the laws bin<iing on 
all the human race: that not a duty has t>een im- 
posed on one in«iividual in this audi^ice. nor on 
one resjKmsible agent in the wide universe, frcHn 
the mosx exalted Seraph to the lowest fiend, which 
it was not his interest to perform, and that by dis- 
obedience he wTijuged his own s^juL Xo just eon- 
c-eption of the true idea of moral government can 
be formed and omit this principle. To conc-eive of 
moral government without it. is the same as to 
c-onc-eive of an object of thought without charac- 
teristic, element or essenc-e. The idea of control by 
mere power may exist, but not of moral govern- 
ment, unless all power is moral and might makes 
right. Therefore, to deny this union of duty and 
destiny is to deny there is moral legislation. 

«3> Deny this principle and we also exclude 
moral agents. Not only does this follow from the 
fact it excludes moral gi^vemment. because moral 
government implies both the governed and the 
Governor: but a responsible being, whose duties 
and interests conflict, is seen in himself to be a 
contradiction. We may conc-eive of one whose in- 
terests are disregarded: we may conceive of him 
obligated to another: but we cannot conc-eive of 
him thus related to the second in both these points 



lo haske;i,i,'s WASHINGTON sermons: 

of disregard and obligation; or, if we can conceive 
of both in one, we revolt at ascribing such a being 
to God as his author, and cannot deem him a sub- 
ject of moral government. Whoever may have 
made such an anomaly, we feel assured a wise and 
benevolent God could not; and thus we would be 
driven for even the umbrage of existence to some 
old doctrine of uncreated devils or to some creed 
of Atheistic pantheism, which necessarily denies 
all true obligation and neutralizes right and wrong. 
(4) The Constitution of Man, and his conscious 
experience on this subject, forbid the separation 
of duty and interest. This is involved in the fact 
that he belongs to the general class of moral 
agents, of whom I have just spoken, and it also 
follows thus: Every man is conscious of acting— 
of acting more or less upon his interest. This ac- 
cords with his general experience and the ready 
perception of acts and ends related. The smallest 
physical act affects the physical frame, the least 
mental act varies the intellectual tone, the slight- 
est moral act affects the moral nature; hence, 
every act lays hold of interest with a ruthless or a 
renovating hand; and the effects of a single act 
can no more be numbered than the issues of a 
fundamental truth. Moreover, these demand suc- 
cession and duration. The acts of to-day affect the 
interests of to-morrow; the acts of childhood reach 
the interests of three-score years; and those of any 
moment may modify a life. Indeed, one's earliest 
duties cannot be severed from his latest temporal 
interests; and we are prepared to go farther and 
assert, with the doctrine of individual immortality, 
that they cannot be severed from the latest inter- 
ests of his future state of being. This is taught 
with some emphasis by the analogy of act upon 



ON DUTY AND INTEREST. II 

effect in both mind and matter, as they unite in 
man. One physical act is often seen to affect the 
body through its lifetime. Is not the like true of 
mind— true in morals? May not one act of the hu- 
man soul affect the spirit through its time of liv- 
ing also? This must be true; for not only is there 
some analogy here, and in the appetites of the 
body and desires of the soul in so far as habit is 
increasingly controlling in each, and most emphat- 
ically so in mind, but it is Spirit makes the man, 
gives to him identity and, aside from redemption 
by Christ, is his only hold on immortality. He 
throws off his frame of flesh and bones at least 
each dozen years, but mind makes him still the 
man— the same identical though changing man; 
and he feels, he knows, he is the same being who 
acted years ago and must act ages hence. To him 
in this sense, as possessing a continuous personal 
identity and responsibility, do we trace each act 
which we can approve or blame; and to him thus 
belong the highest interests for which he toils or 
prays, and the first duty of such a being just active 
in accountable existence, may affect the latest in- 
terests of the closing day of his endless life. The 
present duties and the ultimate interests of a re- 
sponsible person cannot be separated; every mo- 
ment he is treading springs that open avenues to 
the wide universe and to eternity, and touching 
chords that vibrate beyond the veil. Does any ,then, 
suppose his duties not related to his total welfare? 
He has adopted a supposition which defames God, 
denies the idea of moral law and accountable sub- 
jects, and compels him to conclude his own want 
of a creative cause and to infer his non-existence. 
Personal and public interests cannot be secured 
without regard to duty. General and final interest 



12 HASKElvI^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

is not irrelevant to present and personal obliga- 
tion? It were far wiser to infer effects without a 
cause, or consequents, at least, without their an- 
tecedents. No system of philosophy, nor code of 
morality, was ever known to claim fully and 
prominently the hypothesis on which so many act 
incessantly, of interest irrelevant to duty. Even 
Epicurus claimed their union, while he reversed 
their order and perverted their relations. Any 
ethical teacher who would openly defend or pro- 
fess their separation would be justly "damned to 
fame," and the moral sense of mankind and the 
Universe would cry out against him. Not only do 
the ideas of law, morality and God demand this 
union of duty and interest, but the goodness and 
the greatness, too, of God beam kindly from this 
truth that He has not severed our duties from our 
interests; that to do our duty is to secure our wel- 
fare—to act always under all circumstances from 
a controlling regard for the divine government, 
(which seeks the highest good of souls, of society, 
of the Universe,) is to develop a glorious personal 
and immortal destiny. This does not necessarily 
teach the happiness theory of virtue, nor that vir- 
tue is its own reward merely, and vice its own 
retributor, but rather that virtue must be en- 
couraged and vice punished. It does not conflict 
with the doctrines of redemption, assisting grace 
and saving faith, but calls the whole family of 
Christian doctrines to its support. The Saviour 
said: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness and all these things shall be added unto 
you." His Apostle also declares "godliness is great 
gain" and "profitable unto all things having the 
promise of the life that now is and of that which 
is to come." 



ON DUTY AND INTEREST. I3 

(5) The general experience of men of this world 
has originated the maxim, "Honesty is the best 
policy," and this carried out would lead to the 
highest possible union of duty and interest; for per- 
fect honesty with God is the highest possible good 
to any accountable being, and no man can be hon- 
est who disregards the unerring will of his Maker. 
Experience and observation generally prove that 
man's highest interest cannot be found out of the 
path of duty. Christianity, with its civilization and 
sound morality, everywhere demonstrates the same 
principle. The experience of men in all lands and 
ages proves it. Here the public eye may often see 
a poor child cradled in the lap of sorrow, creeping 
from some unnamed obscurity, launched upon the 
sea of life when all seems inauspicious, wafted 
only by the cold love of strangers and the impulse 
of a heartless world; yet perchance, parentless and 
penniless, homeless and comfortless, his star of 
destiny— an inwrought sense of duty— bears him 
ever onward, through day time and darkness, 
through peace and peril, through opposition, scorn 
and severest trials, until finally he stands out a 
triumphant noble man, reared in fittest time for 
some specific crisis. This age and our own country 
have among our public servants and private citi- 
zens many such examples, and scarcely a period 
of human history is without them. The sixteenth 
century led forth a master spirit of the age from 
the hearth of a poor German miner, through the 
halls of a dark cloister, to head the movement that 
should emancipate the minds of millions and draw 
back the curtains of the middle ages. It was a 
noble honesty, an imperative sense of duty that 
led the Reformer on from singing his "paneum 
propter Deum," from perusing the pages of a 



14 HASKKI/I/'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

chained Bible to the public defense of the truth, 
and the ultimate triumphs of his life. Still farther 
back are noble specimens. From a very ancient 
History, genuine and most authentic, I got the 
following facts: Some six hundred years before 
the Christian era an Oriental king erected in a 
vast plain a colossal statue, made of gold which 
he had gained by conquests. It was an imposing 
specimen of art, standing, with its pedestal, more 
than a hundred feet high in the interior of the 
public grounds. The king designed this image (of 
himself, perhaps) for the god of nations, and sum- 
moned the princes and subjects of all his provinces 
to its dedication. He had previously ravished sacred 
temples, sacked opulent cities and led their citi- 
zens into captivity. Among his captives were three 
or four well educated young men, but peculiarly 
endowed with that incessant whisper of an Om- 
nipresent God which we call Conscience. They were 
soon raised by their integrity and the most strik- 
ing providences from the condition of captives to 
members of the king's court. Their success, how- 
ever, made them the objects of envy (and this is 
common) ; the other members of the court attacked 
their choicest virtues (and this is not unusual), and 
urged the proclamation of a royal edict which 
should compel them to worship the king's golden 
god. The proclamation was made, and on the set 
day, convened a countless host around the metalic 
deity. The king, arrayed in royalty, his courtiers 
in their robes of state, all were there. The imperial 
band of music was present. The day was fine, the 
scenery— everything was fair and fascinating. 
Each eye glowed with gladness, each heart beat 
with bold enthusiasm. The orchestra commenced 
their choicest music, and the whole host bowed in 



ON DUTY AND INTEREST. 15 

adoration of the lifeless god before them. But 
those three young men, from regard to the Govern- 
ment of the living God, do not join in the royal 
worship. True, every argument that can be drawn 
from mere apparent interest is in favor of engag- 
ing for once at least in this base but popular idol- 
atry; but they stake their very lives on the prin- 
ciples of obedience to God, whatever be the issue. 
The sequel you all remember. Oft have you stood 
beside the burning fiery furnace as those true men 
fall down, bound, among the embers; and you can 
see, now, the Fourth, the King of kings, the Sou 
of God, leading them out to more than their former 
welfare, while their envious rivals are themselves 
the victims. Such experience in kind, if not in de- 
gree, of both the malicious and the upright, is com- 
mon in all ages, though not universal. It is ob- 
jected with justness that there are exceptions to 
this argument from general experience in this 
world; that otherwise sorrow and affiiction would 
be here just in proportion to the sufferer's guilt, 
and that all persons equally guilty would have, in 
this life, equal trials, which is seen not to be true. 
There are those who may truly say, "If in this life 
only we have hope, w^e are of all men most miser- 
able," who for their regard for duty stand alone, 
"despised and rejected of men;" distrusting them- 
selves and always sifting their motives, they pass 
on through life, "men of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief," and may even be left to exclaim in 
their last extremity, "My God! My God; Why hast 
thou forsaken me!" 

(6) This leads me, in conclusion, to cap the 
climax and include our whole being for "this pres- 
ent time and the world to come." The combined 
experience of this and the future life proves this 



l6 HASKEI,I,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS! 

Union of Duty and Interest in every case. As Jesus 
implies, there are no exceptions. Let us, ttien, talie 
one example of a man of trials here, but who has 
been revealed to men as among the immortals. 
Some three thousand years ago there stood among 
the mountains of Arabia, a poor man, without a Bi- 
ble or a Christian friend. He was born a slave, but 
by strange coincidents was raised a royal heir. From 
a sense of duty, however, he forsook all, preferring 
afflictions with the people of God to pleasures of 
sin for a season. He stood there one day, stark 
and lone, thinking of his choice and the condition 
of his kinsmen, who were despoiled the right to 
worship God. Before him stood a burning bush, 
in flames yet unconsumed; beneath him there was 
holy ground, and the very hills were vocal with 
the voice of God. The scene was solemn, and he 
hid his face, while he heard the great I Am pro- 
claim the holiness of the place and call him to a 
most dangerous, self-denying mission. He obeyed, 
witnessed those awful judgments on Egyptian 
lords, led that tedious march of some forty years 
through Arabian wilds and burning sands, till at 
length he stood an aged, weai-y man, upon a 
mountain summit, and gazed across upon the prom- 
ised land, which he might never enter— and there in 
solitude he died, his very grave unknown, with- 
out seeing a single soul in the land of promise, the 
grand object of fifty years' incessant and heart- 
crushing toil. Thus he lived, thus he died. Had he 
chosen royalty and praises of his fellowmen, he 
might have lived in luxury, perhaps a king; had 
he persisted at the burning bush in claiming he 
was "slow of speech" and much preferred to stay 
at home with Jethro's maids and Midian herds, he 
might have lived in domestic peace and pleasure 



ON DUTY AND INTEREST. 1 7 

of a selfish kind; but to human view, Israel's sons 
had died away in servitude, Abraham's promise 
been rejected by the very ones to whom it fell, and 
the world yet unredeemed. Now, how is it? That 
poor and harrassed man, though in appearance he 
had known few peaceful hours in life or comforts 
in his death, is now in heaven, and, while thirty- 
six hundred years have lapsed, he has enjoyed its 
blessedness, and myriads of happy souls, the 
trophies of his life, have made the heavenly arches 
ring with Moses' song prefixed to nobler anthems 
of the Lamb. In him we see the proposition proved. 
Let me give one example of the more self-sacrific- 
ing sex: 

MRS. ARNOLD OF AFRICA. 
I knew a youth, a widow's only child, 
Of noble form and earnest mood, and eye 
That spoke the truth and told how deep and full 
The wells of thought and kindness in her soul. 
Oft was she known to toil till late at night 
To meet her mother's wants. By day she walked 
Two weary miles to school and paid the large 
Tuition fees herself. She struggled on. 
For years, and daily learned "how good it is 
To suffer and be strong." At length she gained 
The height of woman's best renown, and stood 
Unconscious of the praise that clusters round 
Her name, and gave the rare but lovely sight 
Of highest learning leaning on the cross 
And consecrated to the highest ends. 
Before her avenues to rare success 
Were numberless, and honors, such as men 
Can seldom gain, were leaning to her hand; 
And chances various to move in walks 
Of highest life were hers; but from 
Them aU she turned, and went to Mendian shades 



l8 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

To teach the stupid sons of Ham "to look 
And live." For months she taught them joyfully 
And ever seemed in sight of heaven— but soon— 
Too soon, alas! within a bamboo hut, 
She pressed a bed of death, and there, where all 
Men speak the truth, she breathed her dying words, 
Exclaiming with the raptures of a saint, 
"How good to spend a life for God and die 
Enfolded in his arms!" ^nd would you know 
The full fruition of her Soul? From now 
Ten million years it may be learned in part! 
Such lives are teachers of all coming time. 
And such a death should teach us how to die. 



IiDiDorUIity. 



By Rev. T. N. Haskell 

His First Sabbath Sermon in Washington City. 

Delivered to a crowded house in Dr. Sunderland's Church, with 

President and Mrs. Pierce and many public men attentive. 

Sunday morning, May 14, 1854. 



Text-Job XIV:14. 
If a man die, shall he live again." 



From this very ancient question let us now in- 
quire after our Immortality and its Issues here. 

Life in Nature is very abundant and various 
and exceedingly interesting in all its varieties. It 
is found in some things that are destitute of sen- 
sation, and i<s seen in all creatures of sense and 
consciousness. It is a subtle and sublime mystery 
in all its manifestations; yet its phenomena are 
distinct and reveal in every phase the wisdom of 
adaptation that is undeniably and, I might say, un- 
doubtedly divine. No sane man can look at the 
good designs in life and say, "There is no God." 
Even in vegetation, in its lowest forms, there is 
an appropriate aim toward which the entire or- 
ganism is directed, and the vitality passes on as 
if ordained to be useful and perpetual. In sensitive 
beings of the animal kingdom, the vital principle 
appears in higher forms and fitted to superior 



20 HASKKI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

ends— and is transmissive in them also from gen- 
eration to generation, tliougli in eacli animate thing 
when life has fulfilled its end the vitality is ex- 
hausted and death ensues. This life, in its origin, 
development and death, in even unconscious vi- 
tality, is wonderfully well. God, himself, looks on 
it and says: "It is very good!" 

In beings of both sense and consciousness, life 
is still more complicated and interesting, and its 
manifestations are more subtle and sublime. 

The order of animals which possess genuine 
consciousness of being distinct from the visible 
world are not as numerous probably as are gener- 
ally supposed. It can be asserted positively of none 
inferior to man. To him we look for the phenomena 
of a higher life, having consciousness of definite 
personality. We conceive of life in man in his best 
estate as vitality in its noblest type in connection 
with material nature. He is more fitly adapted to 
a life of a higher order and better duration than 
the inferior animals and the most useful and beau- 
tiful fruits and flowers; and we can easily con- 
ceive of him so constituted that without accident 
or violence his life should be endless. But obser- 
vation and experience teach us that our tendencies 
to live and die are not now balanced, and as we 
see the threads of vitality giving way, one by one, 
and the hand of death feeling after our very heart 
strings, we exclaim, "Man, too, is mortal!" and 
ask with much anxiety: "If a man die shall he live 
again?" If this material form of the sensations of 
which I am so conscious, should die, is there in me 
a higher self of which I am also conscious which 
shall still live; which is in itself and in the pur- 
pose of its Divine Author adapted to an endless 
life? These inquiries are spontaneous. While with 



ON IMMORTAIvlTY. 21 

one hand we unloose the bonds of temporal exist- 
ence, with the other w^e grasp for a future life and 
our longing's lay hold on immortality. 

The text inquires after this future life and 
leads to the conclusion that we have every one 
entered upon a career of ceaseless personal being, 
and that we shall never lose our personal identity 
and accountability, but must henceforth forever 
sustain important relations to God and accountable 
fellow creatures. From these points let me now 
proceed to present the immortality of the soul and 
its present options for the future state of being. 
"If a man die, shall he live again?" If, so, where 
and how? And is this life the probationary pref- 
ace for the next one? 

In speaking of the immortality of the human 
soul, we need first to define two or three of the 
more important words which we have to use. The 
Soul itself we may think of as the rational spirit- 
ual substance in man which distinguishes him 
from material objects and from "the brutes that 
perish" and which makes him accountable to a 
moral Governor for all his voluntary acts. Immor- 
tality may mean a continued personal and account- 
able existence of this sort. It is applicable only to 
that in a living being which does not die. The 
everlasting God is immortal and eternal— self-sus- 
tained and source of all. That power within us 
which asserts our own individuality and seems des- 
tined to arise and in the dignity of a personal con- 
sciousness avow its continuous existence, is the im- 
mortal soul. More, how your own soul seems ever 
uttering the mysterious name of its Heavenly 
Father— "I Am, I Am." I have been! I shall be! 
This conscious personal being within you, you ob- 
serve, is not the moving, aching, quivering and 



22 HASKEI«I<'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

constantly changing nerves, bones and muscle; the 
soul is not the bodj'— the Soul is an agent; the 
body is an instrument. The Soul is the tenant, the 
body the tenement. The soul is spiritual, and per- 
ceives, thinks, determines, loves, hates, pities, sor- 
rows, regrets, rejoices, without evincing a single 
attribute of matter. The body comes up as a mar- 
velous accompaniment of this conscious Soul; but 
with none of the attributes of mind. Tliere is an 
impassable barrier between the two modes of be- 
ing, matter and spirit, and the one can never be- 
come the other, however nearly they may be 
brought into contact. Even the zoe^i or life of 
vegetable and animal nature is a thing super-added 
to the bare wood and flesh, and much more is the 
psnken or soul of man superior to the material 
body in which it here subsists as the Sovereign- 
saying to the body, "Do this! and it doeth it," 
and by its motions makes out its round of changes 
from the cradle to the grave. While the soul is 
thus continually building up and tearing down this 
house of clay and is conscious of its frail tenure, 
the body knows nothing, asserts nothing; but the 
soul knows, wishes, hopes and fears; fears death, 
but cannot die; dreads the future, but longs for 
immortality; dislikes the present and ruminates 
upon the past and is so constituted as to be con- 
scious of the fact that it must live and act and re- 
member forever. In the power of its own con- 
sciousness it must henceforth assert, "I live." If a 
man die in the flesh he shall still live in the spirit. 
(1) We ought first to notice that there is no 
valid presumiDtion against a man's future existence. 
As there is no presumptive evidence against the ex- 
istence of God, so there is none against the immor- 
tality of the soul, either in matter, mind or in 



ON IMMORTAI^ITY. 23 

morals. But Nature is full of hints of immortality, 
and Revelation makes it real. Beginning with the 
Source of being, we find: 

(2) The Character of God demands man's im- 
mortality. God has unbounded skill— "His under- 
standing is infinite." But it were no mark of 
wisdom to make men for only what they expe- 
rience in this world— to make the choicest dia- 
monds to turn to dust in a day— his noblest 
work, the human mind, to die in the dissolution of 
the body and have no duration adequate to the 
dignity of its nature. God is good; his benevolence 
shines from the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the re- 
treating storm, and is sung by the seasons and 
breathed in the fragrance of the flowers; and if 
benevolent, he must delight in the prolonged ex- 
istence of a personal being capable of thinking over 
the thoughts of his Maker and Heavenly Father. 

(3) The Government of God as the Eternal 
Ruler cannot be realized without his subjects are 
immortal. The principles of his government are 
perpetual and imply an everlasting application to 
accountable subjects, as if in ordaining the laws 
of obligation the Lord himself contemplated the 
immortality of his accountable creatures, and jus- 
tice is not completed in our experience of this life. 
It requires the adjustments of "the world to come." 

(4) The Analogies of Nature are all against 
spiritual annihilation. Not an atom of matter even 
can be proven to have been annihilated. The va- 
por, that vanishes to the hill tops, turns about and 
hastens again to the valley or courses its way 
through the veins of vegetable and animal nature; 
It is never annihilated. The gases even that are the 
most volatile elect their associates and unite to 
form air or penetrate the very pores of iron and 



24 HASKElvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

harden it into steel or soften it into its rusty oxides. 
Material nature is in mutation, we admit, but may 
not in a single atom have ever yet been annihilated. 
Mind is nobler than matter; why should it not con- 
tinue forever. 

(5) The Whole Scheme of Nature seems in a 
sense aimless and incomplete unless we suppose 
the Souls of men are immortal; that they are the 
crowning part of Nature's works, and made, indeed, 
to study and enjoy the works of God and the won- 
ders of his providence forever. What a loss, to say 
the least, if nature is not, as it were, set apart 
for man's personal comprehension and increase in 
knowledge, that he might appear, even to the end, 
as capping the climax of created nature and con- 
tinuing to contemplate his Creator and his works 
that cease not. 

(6) The Soul in its own Constitution is abund- 
antly fitted for immortality, but it does not and 
cannot meet that fitness in this short life as a 
full and final development. Its Reason adapts it to 
eternal and necessary truth, such as must forever 
continue were evei*ything else extinguished, as, for 
example: God is infinite and perfect and ought to 
be loved and obeyed; benevolence is right and 
malevolence is wrong. Now the Soul is consciously 
suited to such truths which are immutable, and 
will always be suited to them, if it be immortal. 
Its judgment fits it for the study of eternal objects 
in their wisely ordained relations. Its Affections 
may be centered on God, wlio is eternal, and on the 
subjects of his moral government, which is for- 
ever. The Will of man is made capable of rapid and 
incessant choosing and may forever exercise its 
preferences and the heart obey its predominant 
choices. The Whole Soul feels conscious of being 



ON IMMORTAWTY. 25 

more than it seems, of having hopes and fears that 
reach beyond the veil, of having desires insatiate 
hy earth, aspirations unmet by time, and a convic- 
tion that its truest, highest destiny is to glorify God 
and enjoy Him forever. 

The Soul evinces powers adapted to Endless Pro- 
gression, energies which if sanctified would de- 
velop into an undying godlikeness, and these ener- 
gies and powers the most apparent often in the 
feeblest body and nearest its dissolution; and it 
often seems throbbing hither and thither and 
yearning like the crysalis to burst its casement and 
soar away in its second state of being. Its Moral 
and Religious nature, both presage immortality to 
their possessor. Remorse may be incessant to a 
conscious sinner able to recall the past, unless God 
interpose to stop the power of conscience, and he 
has given no indication that he will ever relieve the 
unpardoned soul of its compunctions. 

The Idea of Right seems drawn, in part at least, 
from a conceived of undying future in which good 
and evil dispositions shall develop their true re- 
sults. We feel called to do right by the laAVS of 
eternity applied to us individually, and the same 
conscious accountability seems natural to the Soul, 
whether in or out of the body. The Conscience not 
only sits in judgment on the soul's activities as 
right or wrong, but its judicial office would cease 
if it did not make its appeal to the higher tribunal 
of eternity, saying: "There is an infinite and perfect 
God who has established these rules of rectitude, 
and all men have to do with Him forever." Thus 
the whole soul feels conscious of being made for 
converse with that which is eternal. The human 
race generally has this feeling, as indicated by the 
Universal Tendency to Worship, and the existence 



26 HASKKI.I<'S WASHINGTON SE^RMONS: 

of this tendency indicates eternal years to man as 
immortal and accountable, or else a useless ex- 
penditure and waste of fitness in his mental con- 
stitution. Evei^y sane man feels conscious of a 
continuous personal identity with these attributes, 
aspirations and convictions. He knows he is the 
same being who acted yesterday— and continues to 
act as one personally accountable, and presages to 
himself an endless future in every moment of 
which he will be accountable for all his former 
acts. Thus the Whole Soul in its various manifesta- 
tions seems made for eternity and God, and the 
entire race of sinners are spontaneously feeling 
after a pure and perfect Deity to appease or with 
whom to hold conscious communion. Now, why 
is this, unless the soul is made for the immortality 
to which it is so solemnly and sublimely suited? 
(7) There is, therefore, a strong Historical argu- 
ment for the immortality of the human mind; be- 
cause all men seem to have believed in it. It is un- 
deniable that the human race have generally held 
this doctrine. The few assumed exceptions have 
never been well established. Atticus in Cicero is 
heard to say: "Me nemo de immortalitati depellet" 
—no man shall drive me from immortality! Seneca 
says: "I took pleasure to inquire into the immor- 
tality of the soul and even to believe it. I resigned 
myself to so glorious a hope, for now I begin to 
despise the remains of a broken constitution as of a 
being soon to remove into that immensity of space 
and into the possession of endless ages." Even 
professed Atheists have uncontrolable misgivings 
about the next day after dying. If unable at death 
to imitate Webster in exclaiming, "I still live!" 
they do at least declare: "I am taking a leap in the 
dark!" and their journey may be as endless as if 



OK IMMORTATvlTY. 27 

into a pit that has no bottom. A bitter slieptic of 
New England begged his wife not to let him be 
buried in a wet gi'ave, exclaiming, as he died: "I 
dread dissolution and cannot bear the thought of 
to-morrow! Where shall I be to-morrow!" Even 
annihilationists act as though they anticipated a 
sentient existence after death, and with all their 
efforts to the contrary they cannot do otherwise. 
The historical argument seems conclusive. It could 
not be thus if man were not indeed immortal, with 
no element of deception in his Divine Maker. Be- 
nighted savages believe so firmly in man's suscept- 
ibility to live and suffer after death that they have 
been known to offer indignities to the dead bodies 
of their enemies, and it is justly doubted whether 
there has ever been a thinking man entirely insen- 
sible of his endless immortality and obligations to 
his God and fellow creatures. 

(8) But suppose men could be wholly divested 
of this belief, the Result would be the strongest ar- 
gument yet adduced in its favor. The Influence of 
the doctrine of Immortality is salutary and almost 
entirely so; but the denial of it brings only dark- 
ness and degi'adatiou. How sad is the condition of 
that man who denies the immortality of his fam- 
ily? Take him to the bedside of his dying child— 
to its coffin, its grave. What can he say there? 
"That idol of my heart— that dear child, last week 
playing about me so full of thought and hope, 
buoyancy and beauty, is now no more! Its lifeless 
body must soon be buried. That is not my child! 
O where, tell me, where is that beautiful creature 
now? Is it nothing, and nowhere? Oh, tell me is 
it immortal?" Yes, if even a child die it shall live 
again. Hear the inspired king of Israel rejoicing 
in the immortality of his little infant, saying: 



28 HASKEI/lv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

"Though he shall not come to me, I shall go to 
him." Go to the houses of mourning in your midst 
to-day, and how sensibly you will stand on the 
verge of eternity and almost instinctively sigh, O 
that I were holy in heaven! "Blessed are they that 
mourn for they shall be comforted— for we know 
that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dis- 
solved we have a building of God, a house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

Cheering immortality! Does it come to me by 
strength of reason? No. I felt that I was immortal 
before I reasoned of immortality. Plato reasoned 
long and well and only proved that with reason he 
might hope to live again. Before he reasoned he 
could assert, "I live," and the original tendencies 
of mind had more to do with his hope to "live 
again" than did his abstract reasoning. The voice 
of the immortal God seems echoing in every mind 
made in his own image, and says: "I am," "I shall 
be"— while the body changes, dies, still I am; and 
like the tree described by Job in the chapter of 
the text, though the trunk be cut down, still the 
root shall live and shoots of immortal vigor shall 
rise and flourish forever. This immortality is im- 
plied in all the commands of God by Moses, is 
taught by the translation of Enoch and Elijah, and 
was doubtless stamped as a transmissive convic- 
tion on the souls of our first parents, whence the 
whole race have inherited it, not so much the fruit 
of individual intuitions indeed as a direct revela- 
tion from the mind of God. So God seems speak- 
ing directly to every soul, saying, "There is an 
eternity before you!" 

(9) But the most effectual argument for our 
immortality is yet untouched: That is the evidence 
drawn from the Separate Existence of Mind, and 



ON IMMORTAI^ITY. 29 

especially from the resurrection of the dead, after 
a distinct existence of the «onl, as taught in the 
sacred Scriptures. There have been unquestionable 
trances where it was difficult to say whether the 
mind was in or out of the body,, dreams also, and 
somnambulists suggest in similar manner the 
mind's immortality, as acting independent of the 
body and supreme over even its necessary rest and 
suspended action. The inspired record also says 
that some departed spirits came again into their 
dead bodies; that they were miraculously raised to 
life, restored to their friends and "appeared unto 
many." But there is no case of the kind so conclus- 
ive as the death and life again of Jesus Christ, 
which he had often foretold, and were afterwards 
certified by official testimony and many most cred- 
ible witnesses, and precisely as he predicted. To 
this continued life of Christ the ancient Saints 
looked forward with hope, saying to God: "Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy Holy 
One to see corruption. Because He lives I shall 
live, also." "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and 
though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh 
shall I see God, whom I shall see as my own and 
not as a stranger." In view of Christ's resurrection 
and immortality, the Apostles taught "there shall 
be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and 
of the unjust, and they shall all, both small and 
great, stand before God and give an account 
of the deeds done in the body." Christ himself had 
told them: "The hour is coming when all that are 
in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth ; 
they that have done good to the resurrection of 
life and they that have done evil to the resurrection 
of damnation." He also held audible communion 
with Moses and Elias, who had departed this life 



30 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

centuries before, and they "talked with bim aboui 
his decease which he should accomplish at Jeru- 
salem," and "the gloi-y that should follow." When 
dying on the Cross, he said to the penitent thief in 
like agony: "This day shalt thou be with me in 
paradise," and he appeared opening heaven to re- 
ceive his first martyr, Stephen; thus proving our 
immediate entrance upon life again in the Spirit 
world. Here, then, we come to our completest con- 
fidence: Christ has risen indeed and brought life 
and immortality to light, and death is an imme- 
diate transition into another life. Even his vivid 
account of the rich man and Lazarus reveals the 
fact that "if a man die he shall live again," and 
illustrates the immortality of all men in its imme- 
diate and continuous personality, reaching high as 
heaven, deep as hell and far as the word "ever- 
lasting." In the august judgment scene at "the 
end of the world," when the influence of all our 
acts can be fully exhibited he assembles the whole 
race before him and separates the righteous from 
the wicked, saying: "These shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
eternal." Such accounts include all men, and in- 
dividually each of us. So here I declare: 
"Heaven and Earth 
Shall pass away; but that which thinks within 

thee 
Must think forever; that which feels must feel; 
Thou art, and canst never cease to be! 
What then are time, life, death, the world to thee? 
I may not answer! Ask Eternity!" 

In that deep, deep Future, Reason and Revela- 
tion unfold two contrasted destinies, optional and 
determined here. This probationary life is the pre- 
paratory preface for the next, and at some times 



ON IMMORTAI.ITY. 3 1 

in this we stand at the divergent point and choose 
between future roads, knowing their divergence 
"is forever. One is an immortality of "enmity 
against God," as full of suffering as it is of sin. 
The other is the "life eternal" in the love and joy 
of God which is "unspeakable and full of glory." 
"Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him." Now, 
can any sentence or earthly symbol set forth to us 
the full significance of our choosing here between 
being the future children of a guilty Satan or of 
God our Saviour? The one is such a severance of 
our souls from their highest cumulative good— from 
God in Christ, as to be called "the second death," 
or "eternal damnation," by our Divine Lord; and 
the other is such a catching up into heaven as shall 
surpass the power of all human tongues to tell. 
The choice between these has been upon man in- 
dividually and collectively in every age unto this 
hour. From the first man in. Eden to the last one 
to leave this earth is heard God's gracious plead- 
ing upon this great and everlasting issue. His ap- 
peals to Adam on his infinite future were personal 
and as plain as they were paternal and pathetic. 
Later Moses said to each one in the assemblies of 
Israel: "See, I have set before thee, this day, life 
and good, and death and evil; in that I command 
thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in 
his way and to keep his commandments. I call 
heaven and earth to record that I have set before 
you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, 
choose life, that thou and thy seed may live." 
Joshua next said to his congregation: "Choose ye 
this day whom ye will serve. As for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord." Again, in David, 



32 HASKEI.I<'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

God said: "To-day, after so long a time, if ye will 
hear his voice harden not your hearts; for now is 
the accepted time, behold now is the day of salva- 
tion." He still later said by his prophets: "Say 
unto them, as true as I live, saith the Lord, I de- 
light not in the death of the wicked. Turn ye; turn 
ye, for why will ye die." Soon Jesus himself said 
to the impenitant Jews: "Ye will not come unto me 
that ye might have life," and in the last Book of 
the Bible He said: "Behold, I stand at your door 
and knock. If any man hear my voice and open 
the door, I will come in and sup with him and he 
with me. Lo, The Spirit and the Church say, come. 
And let him that heareth say. Come. And let him 
that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely." Such offers and 
entreaties cannot be rejected with impunity. You 
are dealing with God and He demands you heed 
Him now, and choose for eternity. J. Addison 

Alexander, of blessed memory, said: 
"There is a time, we know not when, 

A place, we know not where, 
That marks the destiny of men 

To glory or despair. 
There is a line, by us unseen. 

That crosses every path, 
The hidden boundary between 

God's patience and his wrath. 
To pass that limit is to die, 

To die as if by stealth. 
It does not quench the beaming eye 

Nor pale the glow of health; 
The conscience may be still at ease 

The Spirits light— and gay; 
That which is pleasing still may please, 
And care be thrust away. 



ON IMMORTAI.ITY. 33 

But on that forehead God hath set 

Indellibly a mark 
Unseen by man; for man as yet 

Is blind and in the dark. 
And yet the doomed man's path below 

May bloom as Eden bloomed. 
He did not, does not, would not know 

Nor feel that he is doomed. 
He knows, or feels, that all is well. 

And every fear is calmed; 
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell, 

Not only doomed but damned! 
O where is that mysterious bourne 

By which our path is crossed; 
Beyond which, God himself hath sworn 

That he who goes is lost. 
How long may man go on in sin? 

How long can God forbear! 
Where does hope end, and where begin 

The confines of despair! 
An answer from the Skies is sent: 

Ye who from God depart, 
'While it is called to-day, repent 

And harden not your heart!' " 




THE WESTEKN PRESBYTEKIAN CHURCH. 

H ST. BET. NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH, 

WASHINGTON. D. C. 

REV. T. N. HASKELL, FIRST PASTOR. 



Hop^f Tb^ SouFs Anchor. 



Haskell's First Sermon to his own Washington People 
In a United Afternoon Assembly, 

Sunday, May 14, 3 p. m., 1854. 

In the Western Presbyterian Church, 

Then a white Wooden building near the National Observatory; 

afterwards sold through Philip Barton Key and Caleb Cushing, 

for the first Free School in the Federal City: 

Mr. Haskell's Brick Church was built that year with square tower 

on H. Street near the President's House: 

See his Sermons at its dedication. 



Text— Hebrews VI: 19. 
"Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul." 



My Dear People: I have come to you to preach 
the glad tidings of Salvation, and in every way 
possible to serve you as a Christian leader and 
teacher. During the last term of my ten years of 
preparatory study, negotiations were tendered for 
my early settlement in Patterson, New Jersey; in 
Stapleton, Statan Island; Oneonta and Rochester, 
New York, and in New York City itself; but when 
your committee sought me in my room in Union 
Theological Seminary, and set your wants and 
wishes before me and soon sent me money to come 
unto you, I set myself apart unreservedly to serve 
you in this famous Federal City; and the first day 
after graduation (last Tuesday) I came to live, la- 
bor and die (D. V.) among you. I am here, Thank 
God, "with a sane mind in a sound body," both 
buoyant and happy, and, led by Him, I hope to 
lead you into green pastures and beside the still 



36 HASKElyly'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

waters, here, and unto heavenly mansions here- 
after. You see how, after three clays' visiting 
among you, I esteem, trust and love you, and am 
very expectant and hopeful, and have been, to 
date, persevering. I have therefore taken "Hope*' 
as the subject of this my first sermon in the West- 
ern Presbyterian Church of Washington City, as 
its first pastor. Some of you heard me speak in 
Dr. Sunderland's Church this morning upon the 
"Immortality of the Soul" and its impending is- 
sues; that, isupposing this an optional or proba- 
tionary state, we here write our future life preface, 
and have the privilege of choosing a glad immor- 
tality that is "unspeakable and full of glory." 

It is this Blessed Christian Hope as the Soul's 
anchor, that I have taken for my subject, and it 
is pretty fully described by the Apostle Paul him- 
self in these words: "We have a strong consola- 
tion, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the 
hope set before us— in the Gospel— which hope we 
have as an anchor of the Soul, both sure and stead- 
fast, and which entereth into that within the vail; 
whither the forerunner is for us entered, even 
Jesus, made our High Priest forever." The chief 
object of thought here is such a religious experi- 
ence and rational prospect of a blessed immortal- 
ity as shall give us continual safety and increas- 
ing comfort and Joy forever. It includes also the 
ideas of human peril in general and of the Chris- 
tian's Hope in particular, and is very suggestive 
of that voyage of life which we are now making 
and the heavenly haven of blissful immortality 
which we hold in vivid expectation through our 
oft-tempest-tost journey. 

We are all voyagers out upon the sea of time. 
Our barks are frail, the wind and waves are boist- 



HEAVENWARD HOPE). 37 

erous and we are sailing toward unlinown shores, 
hidden by misty vails through which our vision 
cannot penetrate. Other navigators have made the 
same voyage, but do not return to give accounts 
of their passage and describe the rocks and shoals 
hidden by the fogs and beneath the waves' dash- 
ing. The Apostle considered our condition and 
comes to our rescue. He opens a port of "refuge'' 
and brings to our frail bark, bounding upon the 
billows, both the anchor and Pilot without which 
we would perish, and tells us: "We have strong 
consolation if we will lay hold of the hope set 
before us," which shall be a sure and steadfast an- 
chor for our Souls. He introduces to us personally 
Jesus as our pilot and forerunner, who can hush 
the winds and the waves and walk on the turbu- 
lent waters, and has penetrated the darkest fog 
banks of nature and of nations and entered into 
the Holy of Holies in Heaven for us, and so is di- 
vinely suited to inspire us with peace and safety. 
The Apostle's language, you see, is very forcible 
and figurative. He represents the spiritual by the 
material; the invisible by that which is seen and 
tangible. He calls hope an anchor; represents the 
future world as separate and hidden from us; says 
Jesus takes the Christian's hope-anchor in through 
the hiding vail and fastens it securely to his Fath- 
er's Throne; which is as firm as the pivot of the 
Universe, far more stable than Gibraltar. 

While we should not take figures of speech 
further than their authors intended, it is well to 
use the full, legitimate import of this passage. 
The ship anchor is very often shown, and worn 
even, as a symbol. Yet, though it is so familiar and 
used to signify the hope of the Soul, it is neither 
beautiful nor very costly, but is cheering and in- 



38 HASKBIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

spiring. Its usefulness is its chief excellence, and 
its associations with peril and deliverance throw 
a rich enchantment about its name, its form and 
its office. The material of which it is made is 
abundant; it lies unobserved in our hills and val- 
leys; flows incessantly in health-giving solution 
from mineral fountains, and forms a part of our 
blood that is now coursing in our veins. Iron is 
among God's most important material gifts to man, 
and the anchors made of it are His symbols of 
steadfastness and safety. Shall we now think of 
the thing signified by this sign? 

I. What seems to be the nature and evolution 
of a Christian's Hope as the Soul's anchor? 

II. How can we make it lay hold on Immor- 
tality "both sure and steadfast?" 

III. How important is this Religious Hope that 
reaches into Heaven? 

I. 
The Nature and Evolution of Hope are plainly 
suggested by the material, make and uses of its 
nautical symbol; also it is clearly revealed to our 
consciousness by our longings and efforts to real- 
ize them; and further set forth by the inspired 
language of the Bible, which describes it, and lyric 
poetry, which paints it in sunbeams and rainbows 
and pours it into Paradise, till the very bosom of 
God, our Father, is impassioned. Hope's highest 
expression here is in our Sacred Hymns, so James 
Russell Lowell says gently: 

"God wills; man hopes. In common souls 
Hope is but vague and undefined. 
Till from the Poet's message rolls 
A blessing to his kind." 
Even the prosy anchor made from bog iron is 
pressed into this sublime poetic service till it blends 



HKAVENWARD HOPE. 39 

with peans of sacred bliss and buoys our hopes be- 
yond expression. From the bog ore in the marshes 
to the polished shafts of machinery and the shin- 
ing blades of Damascus, poetry makes the anchor's 
material and usefulness illustrate the processes of 
hope's evolution to its highest achievements in the 
lives and prospects of God's most progressive peo- 
ple. Man cannot make the material of the anchor 
or of the hope which it illustrates; but he can, at 
will, modify, improve, apply and employ them. He 
must change the bog ore into unsightly pig iron 
and refine this into the finished symbol of Salva- 
tion, with its arms, flukes, cable and cross-bar, and 
then he must have it on ship-board in storm and 
sunshine, to be used in the right time and way to 
insure safety. So Christian Hope often comes from 
miasmatic swamps and marshes of society; from 
sloughs of despond, even, and quagmires of sinful 
doubt and depravity, and is modified and made 
over by melting, refining, shaping and polishing 
with the appliances of the Gospel, till no sailor 
standing by his anchor and eagerly longing for the 
ocean, could equal the saintly believer leaning 
upon the same symbol and looking heavenward. 

And in the Christian's longings, unutterable, we 
see that his Hope has two blended experiences- 
Desire and Expectation. If these are well suited 
and healthy, no terrors can daunt him nor tem- 
pests destroy him. He is "hungering and thirsting 
for righteousness and shall be filled." His expec- 
tations are based upon the promises and purposes 
of God and will be realized, beyond what he can 
ask or think, and heaven will be his home. Noth- 
ing short of this can satisfy the hopes of men who 
feel destined to immortality. 

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 



40 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

Man never is, but always to be blest; 
The soul, uneasy and confined from home, 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come." 

A rational religious hope has the "powers of an 
endless life" and, laying hold on immortality, it 
cannot rely on things of time and sense that perish 
with the using, and so is satisfied only with endur- 
ing and appropriate good. All hope must have 
some obect, which it desires and expects to ob- 
tain. Coleridge says: 
"Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve. 
And Hope without some Object cannot live." 

Hope varies in character according as its ob- 
jects are real or imaginary, ennobling or debasing, 
enduring or transient, delusive or satisfying; and it 
differs in degrees according to the vagueness or 
intensity of its desires and expectations. If these 
are unreasonable and perverse, hope will degen- 
erate into lust and envy. Then under its influence 
life becomes sensual, dreamy, sometimes insane 
and even devilish, dragging down through doubt 
to despair. But a steadfast and sure Pauline hope 
is the noblest possible development of life in this 
and the future world. It "seeks first the Kingdom 
of God and righteousness Hke his, and all other 
good is included." Hence the signs of a sure re- 
ligious hope are such as these: 

First— A firm belief in God; "for he that cometh 
unto God, must believe that he is, and is the re- 
warder of all them that diligently seek him." 

Second— Belief in the Immortality of the Soul 
and its eternal accountability to God, its Maker; 
for we have to do with Him and his creatures 
forever. 

Third— Belief that we are all Guilty before God 
and condemned by the universal conscience; that 



HKAVENWARD HOPK. 4I 

under this conscious condemnation we must con- 
tinue, unless we "be converted and our sins blotted 
out." (Acts iii., 19.) 

Fourth— Belief that we may be Saved from our 
sins by Jesus Christ, wlio came to seek and to 
save just such sinners; for God says "the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin," and 
"he is the end of the Law for righteousness unto 
all them that believe." "For God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish but have 
everlasting life." "The Lord hath laid on him the 
iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with 
His stripes we are healed." 

Fifth— Belief that God can be Just and Justify 
us, if we are sorry for our sins and accept of Christ 
as our Saviour from them. Every one of us may 
be saved in that way; for God says that "Christ 
tasted death for every man that cometh into the 
world, and He is able to save to the uttermost all 
them that come unto God by him." But Christ said, 
"No man will come unto me except the Father 
(by His spirit) draw him." Hence 

Sixth— Belief in the Holy Spirit and that He is 
drawing us to Christ, and "helpeth our infirmities." 
"He is sent to reprove the world of sin, of righte- 
ousness and judgment," to "take the things of 
Christ and show them to us;" to help us see our 
sins and our Saviour, to "lead us into all truth and 
sanctify us through the truth," to "create us anew 
in Christ Jesus," so that we may be "born again 
of the Spirit," and he hath, if we believe, "begot- 
ten us again by his word of Truth." Then "He wit- 
nesseth with our Spirits that we are the children 



42 HASKKI.I,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

of God; if children, tlien lieirs of God and joint 
heirs with Jesus Christ to a heavenly inheritance; 
if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be 
also glorified together; for the sufferings of the 
present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory that shall be revealed in us." "He chast- 
ens us for our profit that we may be partakers of 
His holiness," and as we are "made partakers of 
the divine nature" we have the "spirit of adop- 
tion," so mutual and so mighty, that we say: "The 
Lord is mine and I am His. Whom have I in 
heaven but Thee and there is none upon earth that 
I desire without Thee." "The Lord is my Shep- 
herd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down 
in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still 
waters; he restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the 
paths of righteousness for his namesake; yea, 
though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with 
me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." 

Such is the Evolution and such are some of the 
Elements of a sure and steadfast Christian Hope, 
and you see how much substantial and ennobling 
happiness it continually evolves in the very nature 
of the case. It is such a hopeful Christian experi- 
ence I have come to cultivate in this community, 
here at the capital of our great and growing coun- 
try. I could not possibly engage in a nobler or 
more useful work. But returning to the further 
analysis of this evolution of Christian character, 
"You may allege I've wandered from the path 
And here give to Hope the proper work of Faith; 
But when the Christian contest doth begin 
Hope fights with doubts till Faith's reserves come 

in. 
Hope acts desiring and expects relief: 



HEAVENWARD HOPE. 43 

Faith follows; then Love springs from firm belief." 

Thus St. Paul's three beautiful objects of 
thought are evolved in quick succession and coin- 
cidence, Faith, Hope and Love; these three, and 
the climax of these is Love— love to God and love 
to man, such as we see in the life and death of our 
Lord, and are led to say: "We love Him because He 
first loved us and gave himself for us." Grateful 
thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift of so 
great Salvation; as good for society as it is for the 
Soul. 

"Then cherish Hope, thy faltering soul to cheer. 
Faith shall be given if thou wilt persevere. 
We see all things alike with either eye; 
So Faith and Hope the self-same obects spy. 
But what is Hope, or where or how begun? 
It comCiS from God, as light comes from the sun." 

So here we are where we began: The first fact 
in a well-founded hope is Faith in God. 

The deep, penetrating sense of human guilt be- 
fore God, and hopeful deliverance from it through 
affectionate confidence in Christ and the fellow- 
feehng with Him as our forerunner, anchor- 
bearer and joint heir to the Father's favor and 
eternal benediction beget a feeling of "peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ that passeth 
all understanding." This is the rational evolution 
of real religious hope, as I see and feel it. 

We cannot fully explain it. We can tell how 
we had wantonly strayed away from our Heavenly 
Father and were like a lost child in the woods, 
wandering about in circles, bewildered; or as a 
foreign traveler famished in a blistering desert; 
or a voyager tossed up and down on the deep in a 
blinding tempest. We can see the Father search- 
ing the dark, tangled forest to find us; we can hear 



44 HASKKIvI^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

His benign Son, our Elder Brother, calling after 
us, and the sister-like voices of God's Spirit echo- 
ing all about us, and we remember how bewild- 
ered we were in the woods, with our clothes torn 
with briars, bedraggled and dirty, and our thirst 
intolerable from tears and travel, and loss of blood 
by thorn punctures; we can recall and tell it all, 
and love to; and how our Elder Brother took us in 
his arms and carried us in his bosom to the em- 
braces of our dear, disobeyed Heavenly Parent, 
who beamed joyfully upon us, saying: "Rest thee, 
my little darling. Peace be unto thee hereafter!" 
And the angels were glad also. We can recall the 
lost way in the untold Saharas, with the sand 
clouds rising in clusters and hiding the sun and 
every oasis that might be seen in the distance, and 
how we welcomed then the sight of the Guide and 
forerunner, who had trodden the desert before us 
among its robbers and murderers full many, and 
had himself suffered beyond expression from faint- 
ness and from their ferocity, but is now at our 
side with sympathy and Salvation. We do not 
forget our seasickness, for three days fearing we 
would die, and for as many more wishing almost 
that we might taste of death to deliver us from 
the dreadful nausea — the bitterness of sin, like 
sickness at sea; and when the hurricane comes 
and the horrors of the deep are howling and our 
frail bark is half broken by the billows and liable 
to drive upon rocks and quicksands and break any 
minute into wreckage and driftwood; then, O then, 
how essential the anchor and One who knows well 
where and how he should cast it! 

Once a Long-Island Sound steamer was lost 
because the captain had left his big anchor to be 
mended; and as she went down with all on board, 



HEAVENWARD HOPE. 45 

he exclaimed: "O that I had taken that anchor 
and a pilot who could have pointed out my danger!" 
As we look at him Ave ask: "How shall we escape 
if we neglect so great Salvation?" But, thank 
God, we in our terrible tempest of darkness, doubts 
and temptations, "laid hold on the Hope set be- 
fore us in the Oospel, and it was an anchor to our 
souls, both sure and steadfast and entered into that 
within the vail of heaven, whither Jesus had gone 
before us;" and such belief in Him insures Salva- 
tion. 

II. 
But that leaving of the broken anchor at Fall 
River, to be mended, makes the second part of my 
subject seem quite essential. How can we make 
our Hope of a blessed Immortality both Sure and 
Steadfast? How can its defects be thoroughly and 
promptly repaired? Many have found a well con- 
structed hope of Salvation an unspeakable comfort, 
and wish it kept always In good working condition; 
but when it has been fractured by doubts and en- 
feebled by rust and bad usage, they lay it aside for 
repairs; just when, perhaps, they may find it most 
essential for safety against sins and temptations; 
and their conduct involves others also in the evils 
of doubt and disaster. The sin of unreasoning 
scepticism in the professional unbelievers is great, 
destructive and contagious; but no more dangerous 
or ill-deserving than in those "who have tasted the 
good word of God and the powers of the world to 
come." And if such an one, in a gust of unbelief 
"tramples under foot the Son of God, counts his 
blood an unholy thing, and does despite to the 
Spirit of Grace," "The latter state of that man is 
worse than the first." But true believers may be 
sometimes tossed upon a sea of doubts and dark- 



46 HASKKI.I,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

ness. My revered father was at one time an avowed 
infidel, and when by affliction and the Christian 
fidelity of his friends he found peace with God 
through faith in Christ, the force of old mental 
habit would still sometimes come back and his 
hope be almost broken and useless; but his old 
sense of sin would also soon seize him and he 
would instinctively seek again the Son of God , and 
unbelief perished. 

We have three ways of looking: to the past for 
examples; to the present for experience, and to the 
future with Hope. Hope looks forward not back- 
ward, except for facts to fortify itself. Sometimes 
we sigh: 

"Where is the blessedness I knew 

When first I saw the Lord? 
O for that soul refreshing view 
Of Jesus and His word!" 

This is not wholly looking backward; for that 
longing leads us forward into the higher and heav- 
enward life. Yet looking backward for an old rust- 
eaten anchor seems as foolish as it may be fatal. 
Some have well-grounded hope in God both sure 
and steadfast and entering heaven, but it is so 
mixed with wordliness and dependent upon hu- 
man and material instrumentalities that, when 
these fail, they are like the farmer driving his 
family to church full of grace and good cheer, as 
beatific as a Sabbath sunbeam, till in going down 
a hill the breeching to his harness breaks and, 
instead of faith in God, he feels almost profane to- 
ward his frightened beast. A good hope is sure 
and steady, and lays hold of a good God, a great 
Saviour, a grand Salvation, and cannot be satisfied 
with groveling objects of pursuit. Yet while we 
are in the world we have to adapt ourselves to it 



HEAVENWARD HOPE. 47 

and use it as not abusing it; but sliould so rise 
above it tliat we can say with the prophet, Habak- 
kuk: "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, 
neither fruit be in their vines; the labor of the olive 
shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat; the 
flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall 
be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the 
Lord. I will joy in the God of my Salvation. The 
Lord God is my strength and he will make me to 
walk upon the heavenly mountains." 

A true hope trends heavenward always, and be- 
cause it believes in God, Immortality, Redemption 
and Eternal Glory, we should let no inferior ob- 
jects traduce it, or divert us from appreciating its 
divine dignity and destiny, but keep it ever aspir- 
ing— "Onward and Upward!" This was my motto 
as a school boy and teacher, and Excelsior! should 
be the motto of every youth, preacher and man. 

It may clarify and strengthen our hope to hear 
the Inspired Ancients speak of it. Allusions to 
hope abound in the Bible and its figures of speech 
are quite various concerning it. St. Paul speaks 
of it oftenest, perhaps, and with the richest lati- 
tude of expression. He calls "the hope of Salvation 
a helmet," of protection for the head, as "Faith 
and Love" and "righteousness" form "a breast- 
plate" protecting the heart. He speaks of hope 
sometimes as the Salvation itself that we hope for; 
as the Saviour himself who is "our ground of 
hope;" of the "resurrection of a spiritual body," 
suited to our Immortality, and of Christ as the 
"first fruits of the resurrection." When a prisoner, 
he says: "For the Hope of the rsurrection of the 
dead I am called in question." "For the Hope of 
Israel I am bound with this chain." "This suffer- 
ing begetteth experience, experience hope, and hope 



48 haske;i,i,'s Washington sermons: 

maketh not ashamed." "We are saved by Hope, 
but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man 
seeth why doth he yet hope for; bnt if we hope^or 
that we see not, then do we with expectance wait 
for it." He speaks of this "Hope of Salvation" as 
the Christian's "comfort" and "consolation," the 
"joy," the "triumph" of the believer: "Ye sorrow 
not as others who have no hope;" but "look for 
that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of God 
our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for 
us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of 
good works." "Seeing then we have such hope," he 
says; "We use great plainness of speech." The 
phraseology attending this word by Paul and the 
other Apostles, the Prophets and Psalmists, is 
often very impressive. For example, "Door of 
Hope," "Patience of Hope," "Prisoners of Hope," 
"Against Hope, believing in Hope;" "Christ formed 
in you the Hope of Glory," "Who hath begotten us 
again to a living Hope," "that your Faith and 
Hope might be in God." 

Appropriating all these buoyant expressions to 
ourselves, we may cjieer our hearts and say now: 
"Lord, what wait I for? My Hope is in Thee." 
"Because Thou art my Hope," "who art the Res- 
urrection and the Life," "My flesh shall rest in 
Hope." "For this corruptible body must put on in- 
corruption, and this mortal must put on Immor- 
tality; then shall be brought to pass the saying 
that is written, Death is swallowed up in Victory. 
O Death, where is, now, thy sting? O grave, where 
is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; but 
thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Therefore," he 
continues, "My beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 



HEAVENWARD HOPE. 49 

immovable, always aboimding in the work of the 
Lord, for as much as ye know that your hope is 
not in vain in the Lord." "Blessed is the man 
whose hope the Lord is;" "For every one that hath 
Jiis hope purifieth himself, even as He, also, is 
pure;" "AVhich hope we have as anchor of the 
Soul, both sure and steadfast," and which enter- 
eth into that within the vail." 
III. 
O How Valuable Is This Religious Hope Reach- 
ing into Heaven! What a contrast between these 
divine prospects and all delusive worldly hopes; 
how different, too, from the skeptic's "leap into 
the dark" at death! Do you see that boy in yonder 
field, flying as if on wings of wind, with his hat 
swinging wildly in the air? He is chasing a butter- 
fly, which he hopes to catch that he may have and 
wantonly handle its wings. See him? He has 
caught it! No, it was not a beautiful live butterfly. 
It was a bauble wafted on the breeze. Half 
breathless, he is returning now with his hat upon 
his bowed head. He caught the bauble in his fists 
—both hands are empty, though, and his hope has 
perished. "So is it," the Psalmist said, "with men 
of this world, who have their portion in this life." 
The Bible says "the pursuits," "the desires," "the 
expectations," "the hopes of the wicked shall be 
cut off "—especially shall they "perish at the giving 
up of the Ghost." Seneca, supposed by some to 
have been a personal friend of St. Paul, and who 
wrote some sublime thoughts about the "Immortal- 
ity of the Soul," wrote also upon the elements of a 
"Happy Life," showiDg that "a good man can never 
be miserable nor a wicked man happy." He also 
speaks of "the delusive Hopes and Fears of Men" 
as "the Bane of Ijife." "No man," he says, "can 



50 HASKEI^Iv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

be perfectly happy that runs the risk of disappoint- 
ment, which is the case with every man whose 
hopes or fears are ill-founded." "It is according 
to the true estimate of things that we are happy or 
miserable." He continues: "This life is only a 
prelude to eternity, where we are to expect another 
state of being. We have no prospect of Heaven, 
but by the transition. Let us therefore expect our 
last hour with courage. The day we fear as our 
last is but the day of our birth into a blessed Im- 
mortality; so that what we fear as a rock proves 
to be but a port of safety, and he that dies young 
has only made a quicker voyage. Some are be- 
calmed, others cut away before the wind, and we 
live just as we sail; first we rub our childhood out 
of sight; our youth next, and then our middle years, 
after that follows old age and brings us to the 
common end of mankind. It is a great providence 
that we have more ways out of the world than into 
it. Our security stands upon a point, the very arti- 
cle of death." When we die, my friends, may we 
all have "hopes of Heaven both sure and stead- 
fast." Such hopes are goodj in life and death. 
What wondrous words, also, are Isaac Watts': 

"Why should we start and fear to die? 
What timorous souls we mortals are! 

Death is the gate of endless joy, 
And yet we dread to enter there. 

Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are. 

While on His breast I lean my head 
And breathe my life out sweetly there. 
"This life's a dream— an empty, show; 

But the bright world to which I go, 

Hath joys substantial and sincere; 

When shall I wake, and find me there? 



HEAVEMWARD HOPE. 51 

glorious hope! Oh blest abode! 

1 shall be more and more like God; 
And flesh and sin shall not control 
The sacred pleasures of my soul. 

"Oh for a sight— a pleasing sight 
Of our Almighty Father's throne! 
There sits our Saviour crowned with light, 

Clothed in a body like our own. 
Adoring Saints around him stand, 

And thrones and powers before him fall, 
The God shines gracious through the man 

And sheds sweet glories on them all. 
When shall the day, dear Lord, appear. 
That I shall mount and dwell above. 
And stand as one amongst them there 

And view Thy face and serve, and love?" 
In Thomas Gibbons' words: 

"Now let our souls, on wings sublime. 
Rise from the vanities of time, 
Draw back the parting veil, and see 
The glories of Eternity." 
But as Mrs. Elizabeth Miles says: 

"We speak of the realms of the blest. 

That country so bright and so fair. 
And oft are its glories confessed; 

But what must it be to be there! 
We speak of its pathways of gold. 

Its walls decked with jewels most rare; 
Its wonders and pleasures untold; 
But what must it be to be there?" 
As St. Paul, caught up to third heaven and could 
not say what he saw, I must repeat Miss Ma- 
ria De Fleury's appeal to the Saints and Angels in 
her song: 
"Ye Angels who stand round the throne. 
And view my Immanuel's face. 



52 HASKElvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS' 

In rapturous songs make him known, 
Tune, tune your soft harps to his praise! 

Ye saints, wlio stand nearer than they. 
And cast your bright crowns at liis feet. 

His grace and his glory display, 
And all heaven's pleasures repeat. 

"I want to put on my attire. 

Washed white in the blood of the Lamb; 
And, chosen as one of your choir. 

Will join in your chants to His name. 
I want, O I want to be there! 

Where sorrow and sin bid adieu, 
Your joy and your friendship to share 

And share Heaven's glory with you!" 

I said at first that Hope's highest expres- 
sions here are in our Sacred Hymns, but reserved 
the illustrations to the last. How we love to sing: 
"Rock of Ages cleft for me! 
Let me hide myself in Thee. 
While I draw this fleeting breath, 
When mine eyelids close in death, 
When I rise to worlds unknown, 
And behold Thee on Thy throne. 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me! 
Let me hide myself in Thee." 

"Rise my soul and streatch thy wings; 

Thy better portion trace; 
Rise from transitory things 

Toward heaven thy dwelling place." 
But this unfolds a world of wonders that I be- 
lieve but can't explain. And a Home in Heaven 
i<s higher, better than our be»t hopes can here con- 
ceive. So let me confess the following hymn. 



[haskei,i.'s hymn on heaven.] 53 

I know not what or where is Heaven ! 

I know that "God is Love;" 
And He unto my Hope hath given 

A Paradise above. 
I know the Lord that made this world 

And fitted it for man, 
Hath God's Redeeming Love unfurled, 

And Heaven is in His plan. 



I know that He can make a Sphere, 

In His Star Spangled Space, 
Far better than hath e'er been here, 

In either Time or Place; 
That Angels older than the earth, 

And Saints with them employed, 
Are boasting now of our '*New Birth" 

To share what they've enjoyed. 



And so I look and long for Heaven, 

Whatever it may be. 
And leave my day of dying, even, 

To God's dear love for me. 
And when I join the heavenly throng, 

Who serve "The Great I am", 
I'll sing with them their old "New Song 

Of Moses and the Lamb". 



54 HASKELI^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

Let us conclude this service by singing Charles 
Wesley's words, so often upon dying lips: 

Jesus, Ivover of my soul , 

Let me to Thy bosom fly; 
While the billows near me roll, 

And the tempest still is high. 

Hide me, O my savior hide. 
Till the storm of life is past. 

Safely into Heaven guide, 
O receive my Soul at last!" 



Iht Bloodbouifbt Gburcl) 



A SERMON 



Delivered on Various Occasions and Blessed to many Doubters, 

By Rev. Thomas Nelson Haskell, L. H. D. 

First Pastor W. P. C. Washington, D, C. 



Text— Acts XX:28. 
'The Church of God which He hath purchased with His own Blood. 



The great question of the ancient world and 
the Old Testament was: "How shall a man be 
justified before God?" Hence, the great inquiry 
of the New Testament and the world now is: 
"What think ye of Christ?" 

After careful examination I find all the diver- 
sified views of the Earth's Saviour may be in- 
cluded in these four classes: 

Some men have thought of Christ as Man only, 
and have held and taught that, though great and 
good, he was self-deceived as to his nature and 
mission. So wrote Straus, Renan and others. 

Some have thought of Him as God only, and 
believed and said His appearance in the fiesh was 
a useful apparition merely. Against these Saint 
John spoke plainly in one letter. 

Some think of Christ as neither God nor Man— 
super-human, super-angelic, and yet not supreme- 
ly Divine. Some Unitarians say this. 



56 HASKEI.I,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

But more men think of Christ as both God and 
Man, having in perfection the two natures in one 
person, able to speak consciously for both and 
mediate between them. 

This is the general view of Christ in all Christ- 
endom; and finding in this a full redemption for a 
self-ruined race, and the only good explanation 
and harmony of the Works and Word of God, I 
have adopted it with all my heart, and wish every- 
body would do the same; and those of you who 
like both religion and logic will, I fancy, now de- 
light in the searching discussion necessary to eluci- 
date this subject in the light of both reason and 
Revelation; nor will you, I trust, let the sublime 
mystery involved in the text deter you from its 
thorough investigation. 

Mystery is plainly an attribute of everything in 
nature, and constitutes one of its attractions. A 
ray of light, or thrill of electricity, is very mys- 
terious. The smallest mote is marvelous. The su- 
pernatural is still more amazing; and the mental 
and moral are in the rising scale of the marvelous 
at every step, until, "beyond all controversy, great 
is the mystery of Godliness— God manifest in the 
flesh" to be the Saviour of men. My text contains 
a syllogism as mysterious and certain as it is sub- 
lime and simple. The first premise is its declara- 
tion that "God hath purchased the Church with 
His own blood." The second premise is, But God 
hath no blood, unless it be "the precious blood of 
Christ." Therefore, conclusion: Christ hath pur- 
chased the Church as verily God. These premises 
are apparent facts; the conclusion is evidently fair, 
and that involves all the mysteries of the Incar- 
nation, Redemption, Trinity. Whatever else the 
apostle may mean, he positively asserts the first 



ON THE BI.OODBOUGHT CHURCH OF GOD. 57 

premise; that involves tlie second, and the two 
lual^e the conclusion inevitable. He as surely as- 
serts there the Deity of our Saviour as does his 
declaration to the "Romans" (ix. 5), that "Christ 
is God over all, blessed forever!" 

Those, therefore, who deny the Saviour's divin- 
ity but accept the Bible, indefatigably resist this 
translation; but with what propriety I cannot con- 
ceive. "Church of God" is not a cant phrase, nor 
historic merely, but is peculiarly Biblical and 
Apostolic. It is St. Paul's favorite expression, and 
found here in his most affectionate appeal to Chris- 
tian people. He says to the Elders come from 
Ephesus: 

"Ye know from the first day that I came into 
Asia after what manner I have been among you 
at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility. 
Therefore, remember that by the space of three 
years I ceased not to warn every one, night and 
day, with tears, and taught you publicly, and from 
house to house, testifying repentance toward God, 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and kept 
back nothing that was profitable unto you. And 
now, behold, I go bound in Spirit unto Jerusalem, 
not knowing w^hat shall befall me there, save the 
Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that 
bonds and afflictions await me. But none of these 
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto 
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, 
and the ministry which I have received of the 
Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the Grace of 
God. And now, behold, I know that ye all among 
whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, 
shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you 
to record this day that I am pure from the blood 
of all men; for I have not shunned to declare unto 



58 HASKEI,I,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

you all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, 
unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the 
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the 
Church of God, which He hath purchased with 
His own blood." 

He caps this climax with "The Church of God," 
a title which he uses in his epistles many times, 
and once in this precise connection in his appeal to 
Timothy concerning "the Church of the Living 
God, who was manifest in the flesh, seen of angels, 
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the 
world and received up into glory." Thus he makes 
Christ to mean God Incarnate— the one who hath 
bought the Church with His blood. This sheds 
much light upon our subject, which should by no 
means be shut out or diminished. 

We have also valid Historic Evidence. The most 
ancient Ethiopic manuscript makes "the Church 
of God" here to mean "God's Redeemed family, 
which he hath bought with His blood." Murdock's 
ancient Syriac Bible also says here, "The Church 
of God"— (as does also the "New Version," based 
upon all the varied evidence). The standard Bibles 
of the Greek and Roman churches have no other 
rendering. The early commentators all the way 
down, like Athanasius, Bede, Bengel, Whitby and 
others, accepted this as the right translation, while 
Mill, with no motive to deceive, after searching 
ancient manuscrips more than thirty years, says 
that "Church of God" is the only way the weight 
of evidence w^ould translate here the Apostles' 
words. The last century's Exegetes conclude that 
even Kos, abridged from Ktirios, Lord, is mistaken 
by copyists for Thos, the abreviation for IJieoSy 
God; and that where Anurias, Lord, occurs in two 
or three manuscripts, it is used in the Supreme 



ON THE BI^OODBOUGHT CHURCH OI^ GOD. 59 

sense for God Himself. Probably uo one would 
ever doubt the Deity of the Being referred to here 
by Paul, if he did not imply what our Lord Him- 
self asserts when He says: "I and my Father are 
one." Then, without further debate on our Lord's 
Divinity now, let us proceed to the propositions 
which the text involves and are true which ever 
word. Lord or God, be used. 

First— The Church of God, composed of all pen- 
itent and pardoned sinners, has been purchased 
by Him with a life-blood offering truly His own, 
and could be purchased with nothing less. 

Second— He did this as Christ, "God manifest 
in the flesh," and this work could be done in no 
other way. 

Third— Therefore Christ may be, should be, is 
worshiped as Divine by all His blood-bought peo- 
ple, and this adoration is their delight. 

I. The first proposition is this: 

God hath purchased the Church with a Life- 
Blood offering strictly His own, and could have 
done it (to human view) in no other way. 

Here the first object of thought is God, who 
made us in His own triune image of Intellect, 
Sensibility and Will like Himself, and so to partake 
of the divine nature as to feel and share his high- 
est excellence, which is Redeeming Love, and deem 
him "God our Saviour," with "Mercy his darling 
attribute." 

The next thing demanding thought is the 
Church, that God hath redeemed with His own 
blood. Our word Church is from the Greek word 
Kuriake (Kirk in Scotch and German) and it 
means, "Belonging to the Lord as His own house- 
hold." In this text, though, the Greek word is 
Ecclesian meaning "an assembly," or all Christian 



6o HASKEIvI^'S WASHINGTON SKRMONS: 

assemblies combined, as that one at Ephesus, com- 
posed of Pastors, Elders, Deacons and Members, 
such as were "The Seven Churches of Asia;" every 
company of sincere believers and all the blood- 
washed hosts of God's elect on earth and in 
heaven. 

The next thing to consider here is. What is it 
for God to "Purchase this Church," member by 
member, and do it "with His own blood?" The 
Bible teaches us that Something has been done for 
the Redemption of all men; "for God so loved the 
world that He gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life," and "He by the grace of 
God tasted death for every man that cometh into 
the world." So the price of pardon has been paid 
for even those who "deny the Lord that bought 
them." But the truly redeemed members feel, as 
the others do not, that "we are not our own, but 
bought with a price," and those gathered in heaven 
are casting their crowns at their Saviour's feet, 
and saying: "Thou art worthy, for thou hast re- 
deemed us by Thy blood out of every nation, tongue 
and kindred." One characteristic of all these is, 
they are willing parties to the purchasing transac- 
tion and have heartily accepted its essential terms.- 

The next thing to consider, then, is: What are 
the Necessary Conditions of this human and divine 
contract? In exchange of goods, according to Bib- 
lical rules, their values must be equi-balanced or 
the transaction is unjust. "A false balance is an 
abomination unto the Lord." So, too, in "the Re- 
demption of Souls, which is precious," the equation 
of moral values must be perfect in order that God 
may be just and justify any sinner. God and the 
guilty man are the two contracting parties, while 



ON THE BI^OODBOUGHT CHURCH OF GOD. 6l 

the interests of the moral universe require that 
the transaction between them be absolutely right; 
that is, if man be indeed guilty, the redemption (or 
price) must be equal to his ill deserts. 

This starts the question: How guilty may a man 
be before his infinite Maker and Universal Ruler? 
and we have to conclude that every man needs a 
Divine Mediator, and that his purchase requires an 
evident, infinite offering on the part of God, and a 
grateful reformatory acceptance of it on the part 
of man. The Bible very reasonably teaches that 
our first parents fell into sin; that their children, 
following the condition of the parents and, par- 
taking of their nature, have all sold themselves 
for naught into this bondage of unbelief and sin 
and alienation from God; that the first accountable 
choice to believe and obey Satan rather than the 
Supreme Ruler, was exceedingly sinful, because 
against divine law for our good and leading to 
endless ills. Every succeeding choice, by them- 
selves or their children to be "led captive by the 
Devil at his will," is equally guilty, for the same 
reasons; it is against the plainest commands of 
God for our good and leading to increasing and 
endless evil results. The number of such offenses 
with the guilt of each mutiplied by all shows the 
unspeakable ill desert of him who would habitually 
do such evils to the moral universe against God's 
law and love. 

It is possible for a finite man to become infin- 
itely guilty against God. A child's disobedience of 
a mate is a less offense than if that mate were a 
master at school, a mother at home or a civil 
magistrate supreme; and as the relation rises to 
the Majesty of the Universe, the offense rises in 
the same ratio and heightens with every inch of 



62 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

the growing contract between them. Any impeni- 
tent and unpardoned man is, in a two-fold sense, 
as to the nature and the number of his sins, in- 
finitely guilty before God and needs an adequate 
redemption. 

Nor is there, either, any Extenuation of his 
guilt. God's overruling it for good, even, does not 
diminish it. So deep, so enduring is this estrange- 
ment of man from his Maker, that he certainly 
will continue in it unless he be reclaimed by some 
Divine remedy, able to absolve him from his sins 
that are past and give heavenly susceptibility to 
his soul. It is plainly beyond the guilty man's 
.power to provide this. If he were able to throw 
off the fetters that bind him to the chain-gang's 
onward march still an infinite burden of past sin 
is upon him, and he must be redeemed with some- 
thing of more value than his own demerit, and of 
more power than his own moral inability and 
aversion. He can never be conscious of a genuine 
pardon giving peace, without the conception of an- 
other's adequate merit set over and accepted to 
meet his case; he cannot be truly reformed, with- 
out the winning conception of another moved by 
Redeeming love, coming to him with a divine ex- 
piation, and teaching him by a vigorous law and 
a virtuous life the true and living way. 

There the guilty party stands in utter spiritual 
weakness, in intense, enduring moral want. Con- 
tinually has he been sinning against God's author- 
ity and bringing still upon himself a ceaseless pen- 
alty of spirit alienation and utter guilt, and ren- 
dered a display of God's displeasure against sin 
necessary in his particular case. His sins are 
working on forever. God beholds them and their 
actor forever; and the inflicted, adequate penalty 



ON THE BI.OODBOUGHT CHURCH OF GOD. 63 

must be forever, especially if lie remain a volun- 
tary sinner forever. The needful penalty adheres 
to his own personality, and, unless he be both 
ransomed and renovated, must be as truly unend- 
ing as he is immortal. This I conceive to be the 
exact case of every unconverted man, and What 
can be done that he may be saved? 

I answer: If God, on the first part, can appear, 
at this point, and make such an evident offering 
for this sinner's guilt as his conscience and the 
general good requires, and he, on the second part, 
can be induced to accept it, as the exponent of his 
own ill desert, and be reformed thereby, God can 
be pure and pardon him and place him at once 
among his redeemed people. In this way, God can 
purchase a Church, member by member; and it 
seems safe to say no man can be saved from 
eternally sinning and suffering without both this 
ransom and its reformation wrought efficiently by 
God himself, the sinner acquiescing and co-work- 
ing therein. God seems to have decreed that in our 
redemption, as in our ruin, He will do or admit 
nothing that shall destroy our free and rational 
accountability. He conforms . to this moral pro- 
priety, that every sinner saved shall be a willing 
party to his purchased pardon and peace with 
God. The divine offering is freely made on God's 
part, and must be as freely accepted by the sin- 
ner on his. As God alone is able to make an ade- 
quate offering, so the sinner must himself exercise 
the essential penitence and falth^sorrow for sin 
and affectionate confidence in God as Saviour. 

He must also see and feel that the atonement 
offering is infinitely beyond his finite and guilty 
power. A sinless man; even Jesus of Nazareth, if 
he were only man, could not provide the ransom. 



64 HASKEIvI^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

however much he might delight to see and declare 
it. A majestic angel could only witness and won- 
der at the work, and move without fault as a min- 
istering spirit among the heirs of salvation. No 
superangelic being, who is not supreme, infinite, 
divine, could do this work devolving solely upon 
Deity. God and the guilty man are the two con- 
tracting parties, while there is joy in heaven over 
every sinner that is penitent and saved. 

It further appears that the Purchase Price must 
offset the Penalty of Death, and so be a life offer- 
ing: "The wages of sin is death." ^In its very 
nature, sin works out a death sentence. "The soul 
that sinneth shall die," is the continual echo of 
God's voice in Eden. "In the day thou eatest 
thereof, dying, thou shalt die." Ceaseless dying 
begins then and there?^ To be equivalent to this 
death sentence, it must be either endless as to du- 
ration, or measureless as to the sufferer's merit, 
and so infinite as to dignity. If it be endless it 
were little other than the original penalty and 
without motive; but if it be infinite as to dignity 
and merit, it may meet the wants of an infinite 
number of men, each infinitely guilty, if accepted 
by each into a reforming life and love. God may 
make an offering of infinite value, because He 
himself makes it; infinitely virtuous, because 
prompted by his own redeeming love, and a life- 
offering, if any medium can be found that shall 
reveal its meaning in a living, dying model. 

How shall this be done, now, by a Divine Ex- 
amplar? 

Practically, there is nothing so expressive of 
a life offering as the Shedding of Blood, pouring 
out the vital fluid with its crimson hue. The blood 
takes in vitality, in the fii'st place, in a divinely 



ON THE BI^OODBOUGHT CHURCH OF GOD. 65 

mysterious way, and one has only to tap an artei*y 
and he pours his life out as rapidly as its tide 
flows. The very sight of shed life-blood does ex- 
tremely tax the beholder's nerves; and there is 
nothing so suited to the redemption work as this. 
It seems necessary, therefore, that this be some- 
how adopted in our salvation, simply because it is 
the best. God cannot adopt a worse for a better, 
and so instituted this. In Leviticus xvii., 11th, He 
said: "The Life of the flesh is in the blood; and I 
have given it to you upon the altar, to make an 
atonement for your souls; for it iiS the blood that 
maketh atonement for the soul." So when in the 
fulness of time Immanuel came, as God With Us, 
he took the cup and said: "This is the New Tes- 
tament in My blood, shed for the remission of sins" 
— by this, therefore, "show ye your Lord's death- 
till he come." 

This simple, scientific sign, then, seems natu- 
rally, necessarily, the symbol, and so God well 
said: "Without the shedding of blood there is no 
remission of sin."— (Heb. ix., 22.) 

Nature and Revelation, now, agree so far: The 
purchase offering must be expressed in blood-lan- 
guage; must be a life-offering, that life setting an 
example; must be of infinite value to meet man's 
infinite want; must be by God himself, none else 
being equal to his part, or in other words: "The 
Church of God, including all penitent and pardoned 
souls, has been purchased by Him, with a life- 
blood offering absolutely His own, and (to human 
view) could have been purchased in no other way. 

II. But He did this as Christ, "God Manifest 
in the Flesh;" and the blood could be furnished 
and the offering made in no other way. Here the 
first inquiry is: How shall "God, who is a Spirit," 



66 HASKEI^Iv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

have the flesh and blood with which to do this? 
If one feasible way can be found, men should ask 
no more; for God uses only causes adequate to his 
divine ends. It may seem unnatural for God to 
appear in fashion as a man to redeem his sinful 
fellows; but it is naturally possible for the Author 
of the Material, Mental and Moral Universe to 
make a sinless sample of humanity, and so per- 
meate that with Himself that it should partake of 
his Divine nature and lay down the life in the 
flesh as the act of God. This, if done, would be 
once for all. The infinite offering could meet the 
wants of an infinite number of penitent men, each 
infinitely guilty, if so accepted as to reform their 
lives and save their souls into sympathy with 
God's self. The one Incarnation being enough, 
there could never properly be more than one and 
that would be seen as "the only begotten Son of 
God." 

That the humanity and Divinity should unite 
in this; that the "Only Begotten Son of God" 
should be the only perfect "Son of Man;" that He 
should be both God and man, possessing in per- 
fection the natures that begot and conceived Him, 
so that He should be "the man of Sorrows" and 
the Maker of Worlds, fainting under His cross and 
forgiving a penitent's infinite guilt, dying in the 
flesh and yet raising the dead, is in the highest 
sense natural, though above all other nature. If 
it be natural for men to have two natures, soul 
and body, and a trinity of soul, intellect, sensibil- 
ity and will, it certainly is not unnatural for the 
Incarnate God to possess two natures, the human 
finite and the Divine and infinite; and with this 
humano-divine existence in the flesh the Redemp- 
tion of fallen men is glorious, divine and natural. 



ON THE BLOODBOUGHT CHURCH OF GOD. 67 

That the Holy Spirit should help in this, and 
"make men willing (not destroy their wills) in the 
day of his power" is also as natural as it is noble 
and necessary. And so with this purchase and this 
helping power countless myriads of penitent and 
pardoned men are saved through "the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the 
Communion of the Holy Ghost." 

If this Could be done, it Should be, and so has 
been done. The annals of Redemption are real 
and no power of scepticism can erase them. The 
Old Testament was full of its rich shadows; the 
New is filled with the real fact, and the whole 
world is now throbbing with God's Redemptive 
thrill. The preparations were apt, abundant; the 
Incarnation was long enough to furnish the Ex- 
amplar and the Offering; the Crucifixion was con- 
spicuous and severe enough to show God's hatred 
of our sins and His love for our souls; the Life- 
Blood was seen to flow; the Divine Holocaust was 
heard to cry: "It is finished!" The Sun's eclipse, 
the quaking earth, the rending of the temple's veil, 
the burial in the foretold grave, the Resurrection 
sight and the Ascension scene and symbols of his 
broken body and shed blood still handed down, 
and his glorious mission work with Him always 
in the midst, everywhere and all the while, ex- 
claim: Surely Christ hath purchased the Church 
as verily God, and "He is able to save to the utter- 
most all them that come unto God by Him." 

Humanly speaking. There is and can be Salva- 
tion for Sinners against the Government of God in 
no other way than by gratefully accepting the 
Sacrificial life and love of Christ. In his redemp- 
tive work are treasured all the resources of God, 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. "In Him dwelleth 



68 HASKELL'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

all the fullness of the God-head bodily." Hence, 
when a man has rejected Christ and exhausted 
all the provisions morally applicable to his case, 
he has nothing more in all the Universe on which 
to drawl "It is a faithful saying, worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners, and there is none other name un- 
der heaven given among men whereby we must 
be saved.*' Christ has "Purchased the Church," as 
God manifest in the flesh, and the blood could be 
furnished and the purchase made in no other way. 

III. Therefore, Chi-ist may be, should be, is 
worshiped as God by all the truly penitent and par- 
doned members of His Church, and they are able 
or inclined to worship Him in no other or contra- 
dictory way. 

We are asked, first, "Is it Right to worship 
Christ as God?" If the previous propositions be 
true— and they are— it is of course right. It must 
also be right, if He has ever been worshiped as 
Divine, with Christ's own approval; and this has 
been often done. Thomas said to him, "My Lord 
and my God!" and Jesus said: "Because thou hast 
seen me thou hast believed; blessed are they 
that have not seen and yet have believed." A cer- 
tain man preached against Christ's divinity, ex- 
plaining the Apostles' words as an exclamation 
merely, and on his way home said to a hearer: 
"What do you think now of the Apostle's ortho- 
doxy?" The friend answered: "Well, between you 
and me, I'm sorry Thomas said what he did!" But 
the Saviour instantly commended the homage as 
worthy of all imitation. If Christ may be wor- 
shiped as God, then He ought to be— the right im- 
plies the duty; and more, God himself commands 
it. He requires that all men "honor the Son, even 



ON THE BI.OODBOUGHT CHURCH OF GOD. 69 

as they honor the Father," and further says: "Lei. 
all the angels of God worship Him," adding, as it 
were, His own example: "For unto the Son He 
saith: Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." 
(Heb. i., 6-8.) If men should worship their Maker 
at all, they ought to adore him as their Redeemer, 
when He makes them into "new creatures in Christ 
Jesus" by his own incarnation and suffering in our 
behalf. It is not the work nor the flesh nor the 
blood, but the Divine Being in the flesh shedding 
his own blood, and doing Himself the work we 
may and should adore. 

It appears further, That all who are Avilling par- 
ties to this wondrous purchase do so adore their 
Lord. It is not uncharitable to say those who in 
an ecclesiastical convention lately said: "We will 
not call Jesus Lord in any higher sense than Mr. 
Jesus Christ" are not of the blood-bought Church. 
They profess not to be. They repudiate Redemp- 
tion, and reject "Sacrificial Religion" with frenzy 
and scorn^ and as St. Paul says, "They trample 
under fcot the Son of God; they count the blood of 
the Covenant whereby we are sanctified an unholy 
thing, and do despite to the Spirit of grace." And 
Jesus says: "He that blasphemeth (keeps on talk- 
ing against) the Holy Ghost hath never forgive- 
ness, neither in this world nor in that which is to 
come, but is in danger of eternal damnation." 
(Mark iii., 29. Which must be real or he could not 
refer to it so.) Though these refuse to be counted 
as God's Redeemed people, the Patriarchs and 
Prophets Proclaimed in advance the divine atone- 
ment and symbolized it by countless sacrifices. 
The Apostles were also grateful for the price of 
Pardon and, with the ancients, adored Christ as 
"The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the 



70 HASKEI^Iv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS 

Prince of Peace;" "the brightness of the Fatlier's 
glory, the express image of His person and uphold- 
ing all things by the word of His power." And 
His many Martyrs, like Stephen, died "calling on 
God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" 
To-day the most distant missionaries adore him 
as "with them always to the end of the world." 
And if you, my friends, would be among his re- 
deemed people, you, too, must say, with adoring 
faith and affection: "My Lord and My God, Thou 
knowest all things; thou knowest that I love Thee, 
and if Thou wilt Thou canst make me whole." 

This involves Grateful Homage; grateful for 
"God's unspeakable gift;" grateful for "these un- 
searchable riches of Christ." In a lake-shore city 
(Sandusky, Ohio, the winter of 1851) three young 
men were sleeping in the upper loft of a block of 
mercantile houses. Two of them were unconverted 
clerks. The other was their invited Christian 
guest. At midnight the cry, "Fire! Fire!" rang 
out on the frosty air. The interior of the stores 
was all ablaze, and they were facing the frozen 
lake with no echo to their calls for help. Ladders 
they had none; but from a projecting beam hung 
a crate from a windlass that could convey two of 
them down to safety, if steadily unwound by the 
third. The pious guest said: "Boys, get in; I'll 
turn this. I'm willing to die for you, if you will 
live for Him who died for me!" And as he turned 
that crank with steady hand and stalwart arm, 
till his two friends were safe, the fire was crack- 
ling in his room, and simultaneously with the 
crashing roof was heard this dying cry: "Into Thy 
hands I commend my spirit," and he went up in 
Elijah's chariot of fire, to glory and to God. And 
the Gratitude of those Young Men to him was like 



ON THK BI.OODBOUGHT CHURCH OI^ GOD. 7 1 

that you should feel toward the dying Saviour of 
the world. 

IV. This Ransomed Church is the Hope of our 
Race. Jesus said: Its saintly men and women are 
"the salt of the earth and light of the world;" and 
Paul sayis to Titus: "They seek in all things to 
adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, who gave 
himself for us that He might redeem us from all 
iniquity and purify until himself a peculiar people 
zealous in good works." 

V. As an inference from this all, let me con- 
clude by saying: This blood-bought Church of God 
is, of course, Very Dear to Him, and should also 
be dear to you, as a glorious reality unspeakably 
good and grand. In all its persons, interests and 
parts, it is dear to Him as the apple of His eye, 
and all its purchased members' names are en- 
graven on his hands and heart. Take heed that ye 
hate not, harm not "the Church of God, which He 
hath purchased with His own blood," for "the very 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

"I love thy kingdom. Lord, 

The house of Thine abode. 
The Church our blessed Redeemer saved 

And purchased with His blood. 

"For her my tears shall fall. 

For her my prayers ascend; 
To her my cares and toils be given, 

Till toils and cares shall end." 




REV. DR P. D. GURLEY 
BUCHANAN'S AND LINCOLN'S PASTOR. 



HASKELL'S SERMON THE NIGHT BEFORE 

BUCHANAN'S INAUGURATION 

AS PRESIDENT. 

(March 4th. 1857) 



(Given in Dr. Guriey's Church 
By Invitation of Washington Y. M. C A.) 



Subject Given : 

''History of the Bible as Our Country's Household 
Bookf^' Our Father's Bible is the Book of Christ. 

Text: "The Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of 
David, the Son of Abraham."— Matthew I. 1. 



These are the first words of that ancient vol- 
ume, the New Testament. They refer to individ- 
uals whose lives are recorded in writings still more 
ancient, and to one great Personage of whose life 
the Old Testament is the prediction and the New 
the fulfilment. By them Matthew introduces spe- 
cifically his own account of the genealogy and life 
of Christ; but we do no violence to the language or 
the author's design by using them to represent the 
outer and inner history of the entire "Word of 
God," for by this title is "the Son of David" called. 
The Bible as a whole is "the Book of the genera- 
tion of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of 
Abraham," and these words suggest the whole of 
Biblical history, and introduce a subject difficult, 



74 HASKEI<I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

because so comprehensive. The Bible in its origin, 
transmission and diversified composite history— the 
genesis and development of this book itself and 
the hnmano-divine generation of Jesus Christ and 
his kingdom, represented in it, are all, if I mistake 
not, included in this subject (as assigned me for 
this occasion.) I shall, of course, essay to do little 
more than preface so broad a theme, and give a 
suggestive index to the sacred Scriptures and the 
Word incarnate, stating, rapidly, the facts of his- 
tory, without waiting to argue much in their be- 
half. 

I. The external history of the Bible is deeply 
interesting in spite of its inevitable difficulties. 
The origin, successive development and transmis- 
sion to us of the sacred Scriptures as one inspired 
and super-human book are matters which may per- 
plex and must interest those who examine them. 

It is not to be supposed for a moment, the In- 
finite Intelligence would leave himself without a 
witness of the best possible kind to his rational 
creatures. His benevolence and jurisdiction render 
it his necessity and delight to reveal himself. 
"The heavens ai-e telling the glory of God, 
And the work of his hand showeth the firmament; 
Day unto day gusheth out with song. 
And night unto night is breathing forth knowl- 
edge." 

All his works are vocal with his praise; but no 
material thing can teach of itself the moral law or 
convert a wayward soul. There is a higher law 
than nature which mere nature cannot reveal. The 
material suggests, incessantly, the moral, but does 
not reveal it. From suggestions of material nature 
the mind infers a moral government, adapted to 
its conscious wants, and is left without excuse for 



HISTORY OF THE BIBI,E. 75 

disdaining divine authority it does not fully under- 
stand. There are departments of truth of which 
nature is the proper and only revelation, and some 
which it explains or illustrates, when by other 
means revealed; but as material nature is inferior 
to the spiritual universe, so the truths of God's 
moral government are superior to all the power of 
nature, and if revealed to us they must be com- 
municated by the very mind of God through the 
highest medium of truth employed by man. 

By language, therefore, which is human and 
divine in its origin, and inspired mind, which is 
human and divine in its action, the will of God may 
be communicated to men, and there is in the soul 
of man a moral demand for such revelation of the 
divine law, if it be possible. The subjects of the 
government of God, though conscious of their re- 
lations and able to recognize the essential princi- 
ples of his government when they are revealed, so 
that the moral law is the fac simile of the univer- 
sal conscience, are nevertheless incompetent to 
originate them and the pardons for their trans- 
gression. "Therefore, God hath revealed them to 
us," says the apostle, "by his spirit, which teacheth 
the deep things of God and taketh the things of 
Christ and showeth them to us," so that "the holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the holy 
ghost." 

The possibility of such a revelation is not de- 
nied. The probability of it is easily admitted, and 
the certainty of it all Christian hearts believe, find- 
ing in themselves "a reason for the faith that is in 
them." One finite mind communicates thought and 
truth to others; the infinite spirit of God may do 
the same, and with the many beneficent ends of 
such a revelation and the moral demands for it in 



76 HASKEIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

view, we readily infer tliat, if tlie spirit of God 
may have communicated the moral law to man, he 
must have done it. If the divine government over 
man may have been revealed, it must have been. 
Every department of the universe seems just as 
full of God revealed as in the nature of the case it 
can be. The intercommunication of the Sovereign 
and his subjects, in language mutually understood, 
is in this case a natural possibility, implying moral 
certainty; that is, it seems not only possible, but 
highly proper and supremely important; so we 
are driven to the conclusion that the most need- 
ful departments of truth and knowledge, those re- 
lating to the divine character and right human 
conduct, have been revealed to men by partly su- 
pernatural means, and in spoken and written hu- 
man speech. 

This blending of the human and divine minds 
would, however, originate a humano-divine book, 
securing so much of the divine as is possible to 
man, and so much of the human as is necessary 
to identify it with our race and unite us to God 
through his life-giving truths, so commingling the 
laws of eternity with the lessons of time and ele- 
vating the aspirations of man by the inspirations 
of his Maker. Human language, moreover, is 
greatly diversified and ever-changing, and the 
great doctrines of divine incarnation and atone- 
ment, which are essential to a system of saving 
truth for guilty men, could be effected and set forth 
only in the most appropriate places, tongues and 
periods, and would be fully done once for all. 

A divine discretion would therefore be manifest, 
deciding as to what people and periods, language 
and locality should be employed for this purpose, 
and which sovereign providence would select. 



HISTORY OF THB BIBI^K. 77 

History furnishes no better people for this ob- 
ject than the Theocratic sons of Abraham, and no 
better periods than from creation to the crucifix- 
ion and the last vision of "the disciple whom 
Jesus loved." 

The history of language, also, discovers no bet- 
ter tongues for this puii)Ose than the ancient He- 
brew and the Greek, from whose careful texts the 
inspired truths may be translated into every living 
language and preserved from corruption through 
all time, making "the truth of the Lord endure 
forever." 

These considerations are sufficient to justify, at 
this point, the inference that if there be among 
the professedly sacred writings of men, one truly 
inspired and safely kept volume, our household 
Bible must be that holy book. Its development into 
a completed whole and its transmission as a sacred 
canon, as well as its internal evidence (of which I 
shall by and by take note), are also in all respects 
just such as the nature of the case requires. In- 
deed, the Bible is so superior in these points to 
every other pretended revelation that it seems al- 
most sacrilege to suggest a comparison. 

Its revelations began with the race. Written 
language was not then developed, it is true, nor 
was it necessary at first. Antediluvian longevity 
and patriachal authority rendered oral transmis- 
sion for the first two or three thousand years ade- 
quate for the truths then revealed. Successive 
generations of near a thousand years each were 
living records of undoubted authenticity. 

But when, for the best of reasons, human life 
was shortened, oral tradition could by no means 
preserve the many truths and annals meant for all 
coming generations. It was essential, therefore, 



78 HASKEI.I<'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

that the numerous divine events and teachings 
should be collected and kept by a most careful 
system of recording. It was not enough that "holy 
men should speak as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost;" they must "write," and "all their scriptures 
given by inspiration of God, must be profitable for 
instruction in righteousness that the man of God 
might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all 
good works," and their separate teachings, by a 
divine affinity, must come successively together 
from all the inspired persons, parts and periods 
into one homogenious and heavenward volume. 

Now, for all this the Author of the Bible took 
abundant care. As soon as needed, long before the 
days of Cadmus, written language was invented, 
as by miracle almost, and made of common use. 
A patient, pious and very patriotic leader was pro- 
videntially prepared to put in writing all the su- 
perhuman truths he felt or found. Learned in all 
Egyptian knowledge, with inspiration of a high 
order, with undoubted miraculous power and reve- 
lations of God to antediluvians and patriarchs 
living knowledge in his soul, there could not have 
been prepared a man more fit to begin the holy 
Bible than Moses, nor a time more suited to his 
work than his forty years' sojourn among the 
mountains of Arabia. It matters little whether he 
found there authentic annals put in alphabetic 
signs and even some parts of Genesis and Job in 
scripture form, or whether he first started Genesis 
himself, as moved thereto by the very mind of 
God. Of the genuineness, authenticity and real an- 
tiquity of the Penteteuch (or first five books of the 
Bible), as issued by Moses, there is historically no 
valid reason for doubt. There is the best internal 
proof, also, that the whole five were compiled then 



HISTORY OF the; bibi,k. 79 

and written by himself, as an inspired "man of 
God." They all have one tenor and tone of diction 
peculiarly his own, until we come to the closing 
chapter giving the account of his sublime depart- 
ure and death. 

Stronger than this is the transmitted belief of 
the Jew^s which rose from the regular reading of 
his writings under divine command, and the testi- 
mony of their fathers who witnessed many of the 
events recorded. The manner in which the Pente- 
teuch was revealed and written, preserved and pub- 
lished, as indicated by its own statements and 
other testimony, is wholly incontrovertible, and if 
we question its Mosaic and divine origin is wholly 
unaccountable. It was written in the most awe- 
inspiring circumstances of the greatest national 
interest; was to be taught faithfully by the parents 
who were eye witnesses of its facts to their chil- 
dren, and children's children were to be instructed 
in it through all generations as a religious duty; 
a copy of it was deposited in the ark of the covenant 
and regarded with profound veneration, so sacred 
indeed that a young man was smitten dead during 
the reign o<f David for reaching forth his hands 
unbidden to uphold it; and to this day there is the 
most sacred regard for the copy of the Penteteuch 
placed in synagogues after the manner of that 
first deposited by Moses. A clipping from the sec- 
ular press, now before me, says: 

"David Wittkousky was sued by the Jews of 
Chicago for laying his Gentile hands upon the five 
books of Moses in the ark of the covenant in their 
synagogue. They claimed ten thousand dollars for 
this enormous profanation," as the rabi called it. 
Even in the "Five Points," New York, where 
some profane men were kicking about a Protestant 



8o HASKEIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

Bible, a little Hebrew girl of twelve years rushed 
in and rescued it, saying: "It has in it the writings 
of Moses and his Ten Commandments!" 

This religious awe for books which the Hebrews 
were summoned periodically to hear read and daily 
to teach cannot be skeptically accounted for. It 
were far easier to palm off a spurious Declaration 
of Independence on the American people than ever 
upon the Israelites a bogus copy of the Mosaic 
books. The opinion of the most learned men of all 
lands who have studied them, the perpetual belief 
of the Jews who have transmitted them, and the 
successive allusions of inspired men who publicly 
read, often quoted and always enforced them, 
unite in declaring the first five books of the Bible 
(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuter- 
onomy) are "the law of God by Moses," and as it- 
self declares "the foretaste of better things" con- 
sequent upon it. Further: 

They who question these Mosaic writings deny 
the whole Christian system and "the Lord that 
bought them." Christ himself said to his hearers: 
"Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed 
me; for he wrote of me; but if ye believe not his 
writings how shall ye believe my words?" 

In view of such testimony and so much concur- 
rent historic evidence, it seems little to say: If 
there be a divine revelation in human language— 
and we have seen there must be— its genesis is 
from the hand of that inspired man who, "through 
faith refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter, and who chose rather to suffer affliction 
with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures 
of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of 
Christ greater riches than all the treasures of 
Kgypt." 



HISTORY OF the: BIBTvE. 8i 

These first books of the Bible once admitted as 
ancient, authenlic and divine, the veritable "law 
of God by Moses," and we need halt no more till 
we stand within the defensed citadel of the entire 
word of God, and refresh ourselves with its inner 
history and life. The people of God continuing and 
the Holy Spirit still among them, the whole Bible 
appears before us a book of most natural devel- 
opment and growth. 

With these "books of the law" would be spon- 
taneously placed, from time to time, the authentic 
records of God's dealings with his ancient people, 
as they advance toward the advent of that greater 
Prophet whom Moses predicted as the one in whom 
all nations should trust. Consequently there imme- 
diately commence a succession of sacred books 
called the Prophets and Psalms or inspired poems. 
The Prophets describe historically and predictively 
the ways of God with men after the time of Moses. 
The first class is merely historic, and claims no 
mysterious sanctity above any other reliable rec- 
ords, except what the superior facts and prophetic 
supervision would imply, and they are to be read 
as simple history illustrating a superhuman provi- 
dence, or 

"That divinity that shapes our ends. 
Rough hew them how we will." 
To this historic class of writings by inspired 
prophets belong all the books of the Bible from 
Joshua to Job. The second class of the prophetic 
books is predictive history, descriptive of coming 
events, many of which are now passed, and is 
miraculously inspired with divine foreknowledge. 
Some of the most concise and accurate history in 
the world is now found in fulfilled prophecy. In 
the accepted order of the canon the predictive 



82 HASKEI,I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

books of the prophets include all from Isaiah to 
Malachi, and are naturally placed last in the Old 
Testament, because relating so much to the advent 
of the Messiah described in the New. 

The third, or poetic division of the Hebrew 
scriptures, includes the Psalter or book of Psalms, 
the Songs of Solomon, the Proverbs and Ecclesias- 
tes. The Ecclesiastes was written in the last days 
of Solomon, and evinces its authorship to belong to 
the penitent king himself. It should be read as a 
whole and studied in the light of his own "conclus- 
ion of the whole matter." The Proverbs were writ- 
ten mostly in his time and chiefly by himself— some 
think his mother may have influenced much its 
matchless parts. The Canticles, or Songs of Solo- 
mon, were composed doubtless in his early years, 
and to a chaste mind, who will read them as highly 
figurative expressions of a Saviour's love for his 
Church, they are a rich and relished portion of 
God's revealed will. These three books are in the 
sententious parallels of Hebrew rythm. The Psal- 
ter, or Psalms proper, is a collection of sacred 
lyrics, or hymns, used in public and private wor- 
ship. The titles and topics, Avhich were given by 
the authors or other i aspired men, would indicate 
their variety of origin. Some of them are very an- 
cient. The XC. Psalm is called "A prayer of Mo- 
ses, the man of God," and is therefore near four 
thousand years old. It has reference to the short- 
ening of human life, and begins with the majestic 
recitative: 

"Lord, thou hast been oui* dwelling place in all 
generations; before the mountains were brought 
forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the 
world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou 
art, O God." It ends with a prayer to be clothed 



HISTORY OF THE BIBIvE. 83 

in the beauty of God and by him guided and guard- 
ed. Its grandeur is so much lilie the shouts of 
Miriam and Moses after crossing the sea and its 
massy style is so truly Mosaic that we may look 
upon it as the oldest lyric extant. Like Old Hun- 
dred, its age and value agree. So many of the 
Psalms were composed by King David that the 
book is naturally associated with his name. But 
some of them were written much later, and gen- 
erally they partake much of the occasions that 
called them forth, as 
"By the rivers of Babylon we sat down; 
Yea, we wept when Ave remembered Zion." (137.) 

No less than thirty psalms relate to the Baby- 
lonian captivity, and some sixty of them were after 
King Solomon's inaugural. 

This three-fold division of the Hebrew's Bible 
into the "Law, Prophets and Psalms" was very 
natural, and early came to be generally adopted. 
Our Saviour said: "All things must be fulfilled 
which were written in the Law and in the Prophets 
and in the Psalms concerning me"; and "beginning 
at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto 
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
himself." 

He and his apostles elsewhere quote all of them 
separately, except five books, to which they had no 
occasion to refer. Their direct quotations are two 
hundred and fifty-six, and their plain references 
over two hundred and eighty. They appealed 
many times to the Old Testament as a whole, 
which had been collected and carefully revised by 
Ezra and his inspired associates more than four 
hundred years before, and translated into Greek 
for at least three hundred years. 

This Greek version, called the Septuagint, be- 



84 HASKKIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

cause of seventy or more translators, was complete 
and the one most generally quoted by our Saviour, 
as if to encourage the translation of the Bible into 
every living tongue. 

Aristobulus also speaks in the second century 
before Christ of this Greek version with confidence, 
and recognizes the canon of the Old Testament as 
already complete. 

Josephus, who was born near our Lord's death, 
gives the number of the Old Testament books in 
their threefold division and says: "Of these five 
belong to Moses, which contain the laws and the 
history of the generations of men until his death. 
From the death of Moses to the reign of Arte- 
xerxes. King of Persia, the Prophets have described 
the things which were done during the life of each. 
The remaining four books contain hymns to God 
and rules of life for men." He then speaks of the 
Apocryphal books and says: "They are not re- 
garded as entitled to like credit with those which 
precede them, because the prophetic spirit had 
ceased." He adds: "Fact has shown Avhat confi- 
dence we place in our Scriptures. For although so 
many ages have passed away, no one has dared 
to add to them or take from them or make alter- 
ations. In all Jews it is implanted from childhood 
to regard them as instructions from God, to abide 
by them, and, if need be, to die for them." 

The Talmudist also, expressing the national be- 
lief of the Jews, gives the names of the separate 
books as late as the third century, and they are 
the same as in your Bibles, with no trace, however, 
of the Apocrypha. Many of the apostolic and 
Christian fathers, in like manner, give the same 
list, wholly or in part, as the case may be, some of 
them, too, rejecting positively the Apocrypha. One 



HISTORY OF THE BIBI^E. 85 

brief extract from an authentic letter, about fifty 
years after the apostles, will illustrate them all: 
"Melito to his brother Onesimus, greeting: Where- 
as, from your great earnestness for the word, you 
have often wished for selections from the law and 
the prophets which relate to our faith, and to have 
an accurate account of the ancient books, how 
many they are in number and what is their order, 
I have endeavored to effect this. As T was jour- 
neying in the East, I came to the place (a Jewish 
college, probably) where these things were clearly 
exhibited, and accurately ascertained the books of 
the Old Testament and send you a catalogue. They 
are called as follows: Genesis, Exodus, etc." The 
list is exactly that which we have, except that 
Nehemiah and Esther are properly included in 
Ezra. But not one of the Apocryphal books is 
named, and for the best of reasons. They were not 
written in "the East," where and when the Old 
Testament inspiration was given, nor in the He- 
brew tongue, nor by men claiming to be inspired, 
but in some instances denying their own inspira- 
tion, nor before the Old Testament canon had 
closed and the prophetic spirit, as Josephus said, 
had for a season ceased, nor were they read in 
synagogues, or allowed in Christian assemblies till 
the end of the fourth century, nor admitted with 
full authority by the papal church till the sixteenth 
century, and then for support of its palpable errors. 
The Apocryphal books were not quoted or alluded 
to by Christ and his apostles, and their internal 
evidence and external history are all against their 
religious authority. In them are statements histor- 
ically false, self-contradictory and totally unbib- 
lical. They approve of suicide (2 Mae., 14-43), com- 
mend assassination (Judith 9, 2-9), teach transmi- 



86 HASKEIvIy'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

gration of souls (Wisdom 8, 19-20). This book of 
Wisdom assumes to be by Solomon, but refers to 
Isaiah as before that monarch's time. I. Macabes 
represents Antiochus Epiphanes as dying in his 
bed at Babylon; II. Macabes says he was killed in 
Nanea, Persia, and yet again he is represented as 
dying a miserable death on the mountains. How 
much authority the fabulous dogmas of such books 
should have to establish purgatory and prayers 
and penance for the dead may well be questioned, 
even by those who thus use them. They might be 
prized as a curiosity but not kept as canonical. 

Of the origin and development of the New Tes- 
tament, a brief statement only is needed. Could I 
have followed "the histoiy of the Bible backward" 
and considered the New Testament first, and there- 
by established in the briefest possible way the 
canonicity of the Old, much of my work so far 
could have been omitted, but confined by my sub- 
ject to the progressive or historic method, the Old 
Testament being admitted on its own merits, the 
histoi-y of the New will scarcely be called in ques- 
tion; for it has far less of difficulty. The Old Tes- 
tament presupposes the New, and the New is 
found to be the outgrowth and ripened fruit— the 
complement of the Old. 

Moses had represented the Messiah as a greater 
prophet than himself; and many times the Old Tes- 
tament had described the durability of his instruc- 
tions and the eternity and glory of his reign. 
When our Saviour came, he acted in accordance 
with these predictions. "He spoke as never man 
spake," and commanded that "what he had done 
and taught" should be told to all men, saying: "Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature, and lo, I am with you always to 



HISTORY OF THE BIBIvK. 87 

the end of the world." He also promised iuspira- 
tion to his apostles whom he selected from the 
various walks of virtuous life. He, however, al- 
lowed none of the great work of recalling and 
writing the truths of the New Testament to be 
done under his visible supervision, which, were he 
an impostor, he would have done, but promised 
the Holy Spirits' help after he himself should be 
put to death and taken out of their sight. 

The four Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John, were therefore written some time after he 
was glorilied, but by his previous appointment. 
They were written at different times and places, 
with no intercourse at the times by their respective 
authors, and their diversity in unity with blended 
simplicity and sublimity, like that of the whole 
Bible, is a divine literary wonder, and every just 
law of evidence places them in the first rank of 
written testimony. 

Matthew and John were inspired apostles ; Mark 
and Luke were private secretaries of the Apostles 
Peter and Paul, and may have been themselves 
also specially inspired. Luke wrote likewise the 
Acts of the Apostles as a most natural product of 
their time. The Epistles of Paul, Peter, James, 
Jude and John were by inspired apostles and were 
early collected from the persons and parishes to 
which they were addressed, and so were preserved 
and published for the use of all churches and men. 
That some of the first New Testaments should not 
include them all was natural, though the complete 
copies would be prized so much the more. All the 
Epistles appear inspired and were associated with 
the Acts and Gospels as soon as could well be. And 
the Apocalyptic visions of St. John— that last most 
wonderful book of the Bible and of the world— 



88 HASKEl,Iv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

comes into the canon in due time as the climactic 
Revelation of the very Christ of God, and with 
its beloved author the spirit of prophesy takes its 
last loftiest flight in the visions of men, and the 
power to work miracles in proof of its presence, is 
gone. 

The word of God was complete, and the fearful 
denunciations of its last writer against him who 
would add to or take from the inspired words of 
his prophecy are but the imprecations of God upon 
every man who would handle any part of his word 
deceitfully. As the last chapter of the Old Testa- 
ment referred to the first advent of the Messiah 
and his only intervening messenger, so the last 
words of the whole Bible refer to the final advent 
of our Lord and hasten on his coming, and like 
the tree of life, lifting its graceful form toward 
the zenith and waving its symmetric branches 
with leaves for the healing of the world, so ap- 
pears this holy "Book of Jesus Christ, the son of 
David, the son of Abraham," "in whom all the na- 
tions of the earth are blessed." 

To this volume the children of God at once re- 
sorted for all necessary rules of faith and life. 
Even the Jews, parted and scattered, carry as a 
sacred thing the writings which describe their own 
sad history, and, as if eager to fulfil them all, mul- 
tiply faithful Masoritic copies in Spain, Italy and 
Germany immediately after the Saracenic invasion 
and Mohammed's mission as the scourge of God. 
The Grecian converts, with a better hope, procure 
copies of both Old and New. Origen transcribes, 
with the toil of twenty-seven years, eight Greek 
versions and the original Hebrew in parallel col- 
umns, making fifty volumes large and full. Euse- 
bius copies and transmits the Septuagint from this 



HISTORY OF THE BIBIyE. 89 

Octapla, and Jerome translates the Hebrew into 
Latin. During the first century appear several ver- 
sions in the Latin and one in the old Italic. Dur- 
ing the third, the Bible was extensively translated 
into the Coptic, Ethiopic, and soon after into Scla- 
vonic, Gothic, Syriac, Arabic and Armenian 
tongues. To what extent copies were multiplied 
we cannot tell, nor at what expense. Every word 
was made by hand, and the gilded letters are nu- 
merous, indeed. The Bible was not then as now 
committed to the safe and prolific custody of the 
press. 

When it was first seen in Saxon we do not know. 
In England it was studied by a few in Hebrew and 
translated in small parts at an early date. One 
version of the Psalms is even ascribed to King 
Alfred. In the eighth century early the Bible was 
translated into Saxon by Bede. Wickliffe translated 
the Latin vulgate into English in 1380 or 1384, and 
people were put to death for reading it. The first 
printed Bible in English was issued October 4th, 
1535, and was translated by William Tindale. It 
was also proscribed and burned, and all suspected 
of having concealed copies were disgraced and 
fined, and Tyndale himself was strangled and pub- 
licly burned; but his last prayer, "Lord, open the 
King of England's eyes," was answered soon. In 
less than eighty years James I., the King of Eng- 
land, procured a finished full translation of the 
sacred text into the language of the martyred 
Tyndale, and in a most enlightened way. He ap- 
pointed fifty-four translators, eminent for piety and 
knowledge of the original tongues. Forty-seven of 
these enlisted in the work and lived to see it done 
within three years, and then well approved. 

This is an interesting scene in the Bible's his- 



90 HASKEIyl^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

tory. Protestantism was then one. There was no 
wish to impress on the work sectarian features. A 
supreme desire to be honest with God and men and 
prepare a version of his Word, as lasting as the 
English tongue, appears on almost every page. 
Never before nor since did England have higher 
Biblical and linguistic talent. Her Cambridge, Ox- 
ford, Westminster, were all vocal with sacred lore, 
and at these centers dwelt the forty-seven transla- 
tors, divided into six classes of seven to ten each. 
Every class had an assigned portion of the original 
text; each individual of a class translated all the 
part assigned; the separate translations were each 
read before the whole class; the final rendering of 
the part was agreed upon and sent to eveiy other 
class to be examined and approved; thus securing 
the revision of every part by each translator with 
the aid of such other learned men and criticisms as 
they chose to consult. So nothing which learning, 
piety, prudence, perseverance and favoring provi- 
dence could afford seems wanting there to make 
complete this time-honored and time-surviving ver- 
sion of the Word of God which we have, the best 
one known in all the world, one in which the very 
soul or spirit of the original has been seized with 
energy and pathos, making every sentiment and 
almost the very idiom correspond to the original 
sentences of the Holy Ghost, and many find here 
the boldness and the beauty of the Anglo-Saxon 
speech as they are seen nowhere else. 

The Influence of such a version on Civihzation 
and Literature and our everyday Home Life has 
been in itself immense. It has been to our beloved 
country the best of all our historic boons. Had it 
been a household book in Papal Republics it would 
have made them prosperous as the United States. 



HISTORY OF THE BIBLE). 9I 

Of the many translations, reprints, polyglots 
and commentations of the Bible, I need not speak. 
The big Bible houses, the anniversaries of great 
Bible societies, the act of Congress once importing 
Bibles, before we could make enough, the number 
of living tongues that have it now, the neatness 
and cheapness of your own copies, suggest the 
whole, till it is read to-day by a hundred million 
souls and makes the civil world more wise and 
good. It comes to us and all nations as the divine 
gift of those who wrote and who transmitted it, 
the special and incessant providence of God who 
speaks through it. It imparts a continued, repro- 
ductive power to Christianity. Prophets were sawn 
asunder. Apostles were proscribed and put to death, 
but these inspired writings still live and go forth 
one harmonious and vital whole, the word of life 
and hope for all mankind. The spirit of anti- 
Christ may prohibit its divine mission to the poor, 
may hamper it with apocryphal appendages and 
priestly and purgatorial substitutes, superstition 
and skepticism may shut their eyes and raise their 
voices against it, but anon and ever it is reproduc- 
ing the simple personal piety which it inculcates, 
penetrating the dismal palaces of pagan empire, 
bursting the enclosures of prelatic power, breath- 
ing in every language the love and laws of God 
and shedding on every land the light and joy of 
heaven. Here it were well to stop; but better to 
look inside this book a little and see the secret of 
its power. 

II. The Inner History of the Bible is the source 
of this sublime outward success. Open, then, this 
wondrous chart and let me throw before you at 
least "a surveyor's field notes," which can but hint 
at the landscapes which they cover. The Bible is 



92 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

not technically a Histoi*y, but it contains the most 
important annals of the world. With Paradise its 
frontispiece, the first sentence introduces the read- 
er to the mighty Godhead in the morning of crea- 
tion, and its subsequent details are full of Deity, 
with coming Christendom his crown of glory. The 
History of the Bible's language fits it for Christian- 
ity. The Hebrew tongue branches forth from sim- 
plest roots and its radical terms are chaste and 
sacred. It's ceasing to be a spoken and changing 
language was providential, and the use of the 
soulful Greek for the Christian dispensation was 
divinely suitable. 

The Natural History of the Bible is graphic and 
ever true to nature. Even its suspensions of nat- 
ural laws are philosophical, Avith ethic reasons ade- 
quate. While every system of idolatry is overthrown 
by its perversions of nature, not one of the forty 
Biblical writers advocates a false system of the 
universe. Though using the phraseology of com- 
mon life, framed often to the grossest theories, 
they compromit no modern discovery. As if antici- 
pating science, they give weight to the winds, as 
demonstrated by Galileo; give bounds to the sea 
and divide its waters by measure, as now proven 
necessary to life; lay stress upon the waters above 
the expanse, as the many tons of vapor lifted per 
second could only justify; speak of the heavens as 
boundless, and "the sweet influence of the Ple- 
iades," as if the charming center of gravitation, 
which astronomers now delight in, and of the 
earth as a globe, ever "hanging on nothing" but 
the will of God, with light anterior to the sun, 
and the "six days" of creation in the exact order 
of true science. There is here no fabled cosmo- 
gony sung by Silenus, nor triangular world sup- 



HISTORY OF THE BIBI^E. 93 

ported by Indian elephants or Celestial turtles. No 
Grecian i^bilosoplier here calls "the world a live 
animal" nor Latin sage boasts lupatiou maternity 
for ancestral kings, but man has here a heavenly 
Father and stands erect with his divine features, 
both fearfully and wonderfully made with a trinity 
of intellect, sensibility and will, able to reason 
and worship the incarnate "fulness of Godhead" 
with progress, immortal and glorious. 

The Civil History of the Bible is full of Christ 
and providence. Patriarchs, prophets, judges and 
kings are all accountable to him. We censure and 
pity our progenitors when leaving Paradise, though 
heirs of Christian promise. We tremble before 
Jehovah's "goodness and severity" as he sweeps 
from the earth the old, antediluvian sinners; but 
smile with hope as he mantles the heavens with a 
cloud that he may throw light beneath and his 
bow upon it. We walk confidingly by his side as 
he leads Abraham, Isaac and Israel by ways 
which they knew not; hide ourselves in the mantle 
of the Hebrew fugitive as he stands on holy ground 
and receives his commission at the burning bush 
or the Ten Commandments 'mid the thunderings 
of Sinai, and through all the consequent history of 
the Hebrew commonwealth, their conquests, cap- 
tivities and final dispersions, we see them divinely 
chastened and their persecuting nations punished 
for their sake, until we say: "Sin is a reproach, 
but righteousness exalts a people and the Prince of 
Peace is king of kings and Lord of Lords." 

The history of Bible Poetry is Messianic and 
surpassing fair. The Hebrew bards illustrate the 
origin and permanent uses of poetry and the power 
of lyrics over law. Were not their poems found in 
our "e very-day family book" they would thrill the 



94 HASKKI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS'. 

literary world with novel interest. The age of 
Homer's Iliad augments its value; but the song of 
Miriam at the Red sea was sung six hundred years 
before, and her hymn of praise surpassed all that 
Sapho sang. The strains of Pindar do not compare 
with Deborah's Song of Triumph, written earlier 
by eight hundred years, and Virgil wrote no pas- 
toral so rich as the Book of Ruth, writ long before 
his day. David's lament over Saul and Jonathan, 
"How are the mighty fallen!" is equaled only by 
his own words of hope: "The Lord is my sheperd, 
I shall not want." There are no poems more com- 
plete than some of the minor prophets, and Isaiah 
and Job are yet unrivaled. Shakespeare seem® in- 
spired from sacred song, and no poet ever can suc- 
ceed who dislikes the Bible bards, or scorns to roll 
their raptures or to catch their fire. In heaven, 
indeed, they sing to-day "the song of Moses and 
the Lamb," and Mary's hymn at thought of Jesus' 
birth is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. 

The history of Bible Prophecy is so full of su- 
perhuman knowledge it is beyond my power to de- 
scribe. The beginning, the revivals and departures 
of the prophetic spirit may be noted, as I have 
done, and its revelations of foreknowledge may be 
seen and proved, but the operations of the immut- 
able Deity upon diversified human intellects so as 
to develop a book of the greatest variety in unity, 
and above all, the infusion into the souls of devout 
men such degrees of foreknowledge that they see 
in lively panorama the conflicts of ages and the 
consummation of all things are matters so sublime 
and solemn that I forbear. The history of prophecy 
cannot be given till all be fulfillled. Prophetic in- 
spiration is, at least, a miracle of knowledge, and 
throughout "the spirit of prophecy is the testimony 
of Jesus." 



HISTORY O^ THE BIBI.E. 95 

The Church History in the Bible is largely pro- 
phetic. Through the whole book is a record of 
Christianity which makes everything else yield to 
its Messianic character. Political events, appar- 
ently important, are scarcely mentioned. Short sen- 
tences describe extended reigns. Most opulent cit- 
ies are dashed out with one woe of a prophet. 
National affairs are buried with one pious life. The 
proudest monarch gives place to a poor widow. 
The decrees of Caesar are less prominent than the 
words of imprisoned apostles, and his throne is less 
permanent than the spiritual church they plant. 
Although when the great Founder of Christianity 
cried, "It is finished!" the Shepherd was himself 
smitten and his flock scattered, and when the book 
of Jesus Christ was complete, Christianity could 
number scarcely a thousand open adherents, yet 
even now, his life is imperfectly seen in two hun- 
dred millions of his militant church which is called 
his body, and the stone which he "cuts from the 
mountain without hands is rapidly filling the 
earth" with pious people "zealous of good works." 

But finally, The Family History of the Bible is 
pre-eminently Christologic and useful to our coun- 
try. Biblical history is largely of this sort, and 
my text, like a family record, is lineal and bio- 
graphic, setting forth a distinguished succession of 
deathless examples. No writing is more potent 
than the lives of model persons, the very mention 
of whose names is as newly read memoirs. The in- 
spired sketch of Joseph is so beautiful and benefi- 
cial that when it enters a young mind his name 
shines there forever, the brightest of all its twelve 
signs of the Zodiac. The three names in my text 
are no less potential and worthy of notice. Already 
a venerable Patriarch rises before you ; you see him 



96 HASKEJIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

first as a young man going westward to better his 
condition and keeping up everywhere his commun- 
ion with God in daily family worship. At length 
you behold him wandering far to find the foretold 
sacrificial mountain, there to offer his much-loved 
son as a sacrificial sign, and receive in him the 
covenant of promise and the resurrection life. In 
faith the symbol was fully offered but divinely in- 
tercepted, by the words: "The Lord w^ill provide 
the lamb," and "since thou hast not withheld thine 
only son from me, in thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed." Lo, these words are even 
now quivering in the air, and Abraham seems 
nearer than grandparent to Jesus, for every be- 
liever in Christ is a noble descendant of that Bib- 
lical and faithful patriarch. 

In the sacred succession appears also the inter- 
mediate boy of Bethelehem and ruler of Israel, 
God says of him: "Once have I sworn by my holi- 
ness, and I will not lie unto David: His seed shall 
endure forever, and his throne as the sun before 
me." The regal response is no less significant: "I 
see the Messiah ever before me; and the Lord saith 
unto my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand till I 
make thy foes thy footstool." 

"Therefore, we know assuredly that God hath 
made Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham, 
to be both Lord and Christ." For "God, who at 
sundry times and in divers manners, spake in times 
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath 
appointed heir of all things, by Avhom also he made 
the worlds, who being the brightness of the Fath- 
er's glory and the express image of his person and 
upholding all things by the word of his power, 
when he had purged our sins sat down at the right 



HISTORY OF THE BIBI,K. 97 

hand of the Majesty on high, who saith: Thou art 
my Son; this day have I begotten thee, and let all 
the angels of God worship him. And unto the Son 
again he saith: Thy throne, O God, is forever and 
ever, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of 
thy kingdom." It was that God might be thus man- 
ifest in the flesh that satan was allowed the key of 
Paradise that he might open therewith the portals 
of redemption. The Saviour was promised soon as 
needed, as "the Seed of the woman that should 
bruise the serpent's head," was typified by the first 
act of acceptable worship; personified by many 
Biblical characters and foretold and believed in by 
all the inspired Hebrews as the coming Emanuel— 
God with us. More than one hundred explicit pre- 
dictions introduce him; the armies of heaven at- 
tend him and "the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God" goes forth at his bidding. Antediluvians 
and patriarchs shouted forth his coming; prophets 
took up the strain, repeated the time, place and cir- 
cumstances of his advent; described the scene of 
his ministry, his miracles, sufferings, death, resur- 
rection, ascension and conquest and culture of the 
world by his gospel, and the angel of the covenant 
said to the promised virgin: "Behold, thou shalt 
conceive and bring forth a Son and shalt call his 
name Jesus. He shall be great, the Son of the High- 
est, and the Lord shall give him the throne of his 
father, David, and of his kingdom there shall be 
no end." Now, no man is the chief character in any 
series of inspired writings, nor the ruler of succes- 
sive ages; but Jesus Christ is the subject of all the 
sacred books, and his throne is forever established. 
The History of Redemption, drawn from his Bi- 
ble, covers all time, and is the philosophical basis 
of the history of our world. Here is a moral rea- 



98 HASKEIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

son for the terrestrial life of man, and the permis- 
sion of sin is sufficiently explained If God be re- 
vealed thereby to the universe, the Redeemer of the 
penitent and the defender of the pure. This coun- 
try, all mankind, has need of this incarnate Savior, 
and of this Bible as his rule of life, for "men are 
begotten again by his word of truth" into better 
sons and citizens. Either we must deny the facts 
of sin and its penalties and ignore the virtue of 
the heavenly tlirone or admit the Bible records of 
God's redeeming love and the divinity Incarnate 
before whom demoniacs exclaimed: "We know 
thee, who thou art, The Holy One of God!" We 
may deny the depravity of man; but we cannot 
blot out the bloody history of mankind which 
proves it. We may deny the divinity of Christ, but 
we cannot stay his onward march and destroy "the 
record God hath given of his Son," nor annul the 
command to "honor the Son even as ye honor the 
Father." His Godhood equals the demands for in- 
finite authority; his manhood brings him into con- 
scious sympathy with human want in all time and 
every land; and, as the Bible— which is his biog- 
raphy—is a humano-divine book, for man and his 
Maker's use to help them work together, so Jesus 
Christ stands here before us now complete in his 
humanity and Divinity, our companion, counsellor 
and king, and his name is called the living "Word 
of God." Here then, let us all confess, again, the 
Bible is "the Book of Jesus Christ" and our Coun- 
try's greatest boon, of which our Constitution, lib- 
erty and progressive civil life, our happy homes 
and very hopes of heaven were born. 

O that all sires, sons, citizens and civic magis- 
trates might see and feel how God, here in this 
Book, now dwells with men to make them wise 



HISTORY OF THE BIBI,K. 99 

and good, and let our papal population and neigh- 
boring republics henceforth take this Holy Book 
into their homes and hearts and lives and live our 
loving i3eers. 

Empress Victoria once sent to Madagar's bloody 
queen a copy of this "Book of Christ" and said: 
"This precious gift made England what she is!" 
A mother gave a Bible to her boy and sent him 
forth with this inscribed: 

"A parent's blessing on her son 

Goes with this holy thing; 
The love that would retain the one 

Must to the other cling. 
Remember, 'tis no common toy, 
A Mother's gift, remember boy!" 
To-morrow James Buchanan will take a solemn 
oath, upon this book, to do the best he can as Presi- 
dent of this great Bible-reading Republic. When 
he has raised one hand to heaven and with the 
other pressed the book, let him repeat the Presi- 
dential pledge and pray to God for "help," kissing 
his Holy Word in proof that he doth heed and love 
the will of heaven, and may God bless our land! 
LET US PRAY: 

Almighty God, manifest in nature, human flesh 
and in this Book of Jesus Christ on which our 
history and hopes are built, look loving still upon 
our land. Help our new Magistrate to know and 
do thy will, and all our people to obey thy law and 
bless thee for thy love in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Let every nation, every tribe, 

On this terrestrial ball 
To Him all majesty ascribe, 
And crown him Lord of all! 




LIVINCSTON OTIS SHERMAN WASHINGTON ADAMS 

INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. 

The Xi'W York OhurcJic.s had special irorship; (fien 

Washinf/fon, in front of Conc/ress Hall, ivitfi his 

hand uj>on an open Bible, took the 

oath of office and added, 

"so HELP ME GOD," AND KISSED THE BOOK. 



II. INAUGURAL SERMON. 

In New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington D. C. 

(March 3d, 1861.) 

(The Night before Lincoln was Sworn as President.) 



By Rev. T. N. Haskell. L. H. D. of Boston. 



Subject: 
''God's Excellence and Our President's OathV 

"In the beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth."~Gen. 1, I. 

When God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no 
greater, He sware by Himself. — Heb. VI. 13. 

The first sentence in the Bible is the ablest, and 
perhaps oldest, in written speech. It creates and 
so controls the universe by Elohem— that first name 
of the Supreme Being used as several in one, in 
which appears the beloved apostles' Logos, or 
"Word, by whom the worlds were made" and 
spoken into being as henceforth forever, obedient 
to his voice. It is my purpose, on this important 
occasion, to present a few illustrations of the Ex- 
istence and Excellence of this Supreme Maker and 
Ruler of the universe, and the sanctity of our Presi- 
dent's oath of office, in His name, in this providen- 
tial land and time. And let us observe: 

(1) There is no valid presumption against the 
existence of such a personal and Supreme Being. As 
there never was a time of utter nonentity, nor a 
time when nothing created something out of noth- 
ing, so there never was a time when something 



I02 HASKEI/Iy'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

did not exist; and as that something may be 
sourceful and supreme, atheism cannot be proved. 
On the other hand, I remark: 

(2) There are many valid proofs and very in- 
teresting illustrations of the existence and excel- 
lence of our Jehovah, and these all culminate in 
Jesus Christ our Lord, who, as St. Paul says, is 
over all, "God blessed forever." (Rom. ix., 5.) The 
sublime pertinence of this subject to the Inaugura- 
tion of Presidents, in the church where they wor- 
ship, will in the sequel appear self-evident; for all 
my ilustrations shall merge into redeeming love 
and the magnificence and minutiae of overruling 
providence to which all our solemn oaths appeal. 

I. Beginning with our inner selves, my first il- 
lustration shall be from Spirit Consciousness. It is 
asserted by many and disproved by none, that 
there is born in the human mind what for want of 
better terms is called an "innate sense of deity;" 
that the convictions of God, and immortality, too, 
are transmissive in a higher sense than traditional; 
that the sight of the personal God speaking in 
Eden must have deeply impressed the parents of 
the race and left traces of its effects upon the men- 
tal constitutions of their offspring; that so the 
waking consciousness of every son of Adam rises 
into the felt— though unseen— presence of his Mak- 
er; that memory recalls, in some cases, the con- 
scious feeling after God before testimony or ob- 
servation is remembered to have given an argu- 
ment from without to prove his personal being; 
that this inborn power in some to feel, in all to ad- 
mit in early consciousness there is a personal God, 
infinite and perfect— like the sense of spirit worthi- 
ness for immortality, like the rational intuition 
that every event must have a cause and must oe- 




I Intuitions of Deity.) 

rjTTLE FLOKKNCK SAID TO HER FATIIEK: 
"l WAS THINKING OF GOD I"' 

18(54. 



GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE. IO3 

cur in time and space— reveals its object before his 
worlds are martialed into proof; and that were a 
human mind untaught from infancy it would ulti- 
mately testify as now, there is a Sovereign Deity 
beyond all conception great and good. Hence child- 
hood, almost instinctively adores. 

II. My second illustration is from the Religious, 
Usages of the Race. The lowest pagans, the most 
enlightened Christians reveal the phenomenon of 
worship directed toward personal being of con- 
ceived superiority to the worshipers themselves. 
The sense of a Supreme Being seems a common phe- 
nomenon of the general intelligence, and to Him the 
universal conscience makes its final appeal, as to 
one having not merely creative but legislative, ex- 
ecutive and judicial power. In the general con- 
science of mankind is, therefore, found a witness 
of his person and perfections which idolatry may 
degrade but cannot wholly destroy. In pagan lands 
one God will rise above the rest, like Jupiter with 
his thunderbolts, whom even idolators will call 
"the Maker of heaven and earth and Father of gods 
and men." The declaration of the heathen Aratus 
(and Cleanthes) quoted by St. Paul, "For we are 
also his offspring," is of universal acceptance, and 
Sophocles says what all men virtually believe: 
"There is a God, and but one, 
Who has made the heavens and the earth, 
The blue surges of the sea and the might of winds." 

Some, for example the disciples of Plato, de- 
clared the supreme God to be self-existent and the 
source of being, revealing himself by the Logos or 
personnel of the Creating Word, apparently quoted 
by Apostle John (1.). They even evinced the idea 
of a necessary companionship in the pre-existent 
Deity, admitting of a unity of essence in a trinity 



I04 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

of manifestation— strikingly coincident with the 
Christian system. Lao-Tsu, a Chinese philosopher, 
600 B. C, said: "The Supreme Source produced one, 
the two produced a third and the three made all 
things," and "these," he adds, "are three incompre- 
hensibles that are indeed but one." (See Henry's 
Hist, of Ph.) His favorite name for the Supreme 
Being is of Hebrew origin, signifying, like the Pla- 
tonists, the Logos or Word, as in John. Whether 
these coincidences arose from a partial acquaint- 
ance with the Hebrew's record of creation and 
their reverence for the coming incarnated Christ, 
from the native shrinking of the human mind from 
a bald, lonely Theism, or from the hints of tri- 
unities in nature, as man— of body, life and spirit; 
as mind— of intellect, sensibility and will, or water 
even, as a solid, a liquid, a vapor— whether the 
several-in-one idea arose from any or all such con- 
siderations combined, we cannot tell; but certain 
it is, the general belief of the race reveals every- 
where the idea of one super-excellent personal 
Deity, who after making the heaven and earth 
could say: 

"Let us make man!" and have the record read: 
"He made man in his own image and breathed into 
him the breath of life." What is thus so generally 
revealed is doubtless real; and the sense of both 
rectitude and religion affirms: "There is one great 
Supreme Source, like God our Saviour." 

III. My third illustration is from the Visible 
World. There is before us a wonderful display of 
diversified objects, which, together, make one ma- 
terial universe. The question arises: Whence came 
these external things? "The eternity of matter" is 
a supposition without any proof— from the proper- 
ties of bodies or the order of nature; and if it were 



GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE. I05 

"from everlasting to everlasting," it has no crea- 
tive or designing efficiency in itself. Its arrange- 
ment under scientific laws reveals the Author of all 
science over it forever, originating and executing 
those laws with infinite intelligence and precision. 
Its gravity, cohesion, existence are manifestly de- 
pendent upon the incessant volition of that creative 
and controlling Power which numbers the hairs 
upon our heads, nicely adjusts even ultimate 
atoms in the fine scales of his balance, and so re- 
lates each particle to every other in the universe as 
to make all harmonious. And yet, were all material 
motion to cease forever, from this minute, the foot- 
prints of the Creator would be seen fixed in the 
rocks and his hand writing remain legible on the 
dome of the sky. So the very existence of every 
visible object, even if it could be alone and motion- 
less henceforth, must prove forever the prior ex- 
istence of its creative subject; but the Relations 
and Motions of matter reveal still more the exist- 
ence and excellence of Him that made and moves it. 

Organized matter, as seen in the vitalized Veg- 
etable Kingdom, reveals yet more the all-pervad- 
ing existence and excellence of Him who devised 
and developed it; whose inventive genius and sense 
of the useful and beautiful are perfect and eternal, 
so that the cedars of Lebanon, and the lilies of the 
valley, the Arctic mosses and fruits and flowers of 
the topics are clustered as one garnd bouquet of 
utility and beauty in the hand of the Maker and 
Giver. 

The wonderfully made and modified Animal 
Kingdom, with every variety of locomotion, sense 
and instinct, in every case more suitable than finite 
mind could conceive, assures us still more there is 
a personal Creator who not only originated the idea 



I06 HASKEI/Iv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

of the horse and the housefly, but clothed the ach- 
ing neck of the one, as Job says, with the flowing 
grandeur of clouds breathing with thunder (Job 
39:19.), and gave to the other the means and the 
motive to walk on the ceiling without effort or dan- 
ger; who taught the spider his rights in the palace 
of princes, prepared the rocks for the conies and 
May for the feathered warblers of music, and bade 
even the translated sea-shell whisper forever the 
roar of the ocean and echo softly his praises. 

The Relations of Matter, in the mineral, veget- 
able and animal kingdoms reveal yet more the ex- 
istence and skill of Him who made and related 
them. Earth, water, air, heat, light, electricity, 
give to vegetation food, drink, life, breath and a 
footing; and the vegetable, in turn, invites the ani- 
mal life to graze in its fields, clip its excess of 
ripened fruits and build nests in its branches or lie 
ruminating down on its grassy pillows. 

There is no limit to the number or neatness of 
these relations of animate and inanimate nature, 
showing the excellence of their Author. 

The Microscope reveals most intricate and nicely 
adapted mechanisms too minute for the naked eye 
to see. It discovers to us the otherwise invisible 
insect's matchless eyes and organs for appropri- 
ating needful food; and unfolds a million delicate 
devices in the frame of every fowl that cuts the 
air, or fish that revels in the sea, or animal that 
feeds upon the hills, up to man that walks erect, 
so fearfully and wonderfully made in the triune 
image of his God, and it assures us that evei*y 
beating of our heart opens a valve more wonderful 
than human genius ever made, and that each 
feather, fin or scale, surpasses far our best ideals, 
and not a limb or joint in the minutest moving 



GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE. IO7 

thing but must have been measured by the mind 
of God before it was made and fitted to its place. 
The Telescope projects the beholder on the plane 
of universal space, and bids him enter the temple 
of the skies, lighted with the chandeliers of heaven, 
whose astoral lamps are ever "hung on nothing" 
but the will of God; and there, as he feels "the 
bands of Orion and the sweet influence of the 
Pleiades" drawing him toward the central pivot 
of the universe, he sees "the great white throne 
and Him that sits upon it," and exclaims: "An un- 
devout astronomer is mad,' 'an Atheist is a fool!' 
My faith can see the face of God, and hears him 
chanting through the eternal depths and heights: 
'I am! I am! Behold, I stretched out these heav- 
ens alone, and all their hosts have I commanded! 
I made the universe for my temple, with no plan 
but my ideal, no instrument but my will. I lighted 
it by speaking the word; 1 peopled it by my breath, 
and I bid them all: Behold, obey and worship; for 
I am God and there is none else!" 

To this all Nature yields assent in sweetest har- 
mony of song, and says: 
"Not only doth the voiceful Day 

Its maker, God, aloud proclaim, 
But Night, with its sublime array 

Of worlds doth magnify thy name! 
Yea, while adoring seraphim 

Before thee bend the willing knee, 
From every star a choral hymn 

Goes up unceasingly to Thee! 
Day unto day doth utter speech 

And night to night thy voice makes known; 
Through all the earth, where thought may reach, 

Is heard their glad and solemn tone. 
And worlds beyond the farthest star, 

Whose light hath reached a human eye, 
Bring their glad anthem from afar 

And praise Creative Deity!" 



Io8 HASKEI<I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

IV. My fourth illustration is from the Spiritual 
Universe, composed of finite, rational creatures. 
Besides the objects in material nature, of which 
I have just spoken, there is another class of ex- 
istences with none of the properties of form, 
weight, etc., peculiar to matter, but revealing the 
phenomena of distinct intelligences, "differing 
from each other as one star diff ereth from another 
star in glory." Instead of the impersonal proper- 
ties of matter, these have attributes immeasurably 
higher and more difficult of conception than can 
be predicated of any material thing, and can never 
become material any more than matter is or can 
be mind. They have sense and consciousness, un- 
derstanding and judgment, memory and imagina- 
tion, reason and conscience. They think, feel and 
will; they reason and reflect; they understand and 
know; they judge, and approve or blame, love or 
hate, confide or distrust; they remember, with com- 
plaisency or remorse; they anticipate, with hope 
or fear; and they find in themselves some recrea- 
tive power to imitate, remodel and even to origin- 
ate or at least invent, which is evidence that an 
Infinite and Perfect Mind from the beginning might 
"make all things for himself, even finite souls to 
serve God and enjoy him forever." 

Thus the mental and moral rise superior to ev- 
erything material, and yet finite spirits, like every 
species of matter, reveal no self-creative power. 
They turn to a Being infinite, eternal and perfect, 
and say: "He hath made us, and not we ourselves." 
The assurance that the first man could not have 
made himself before he existed is also proof that 
the first finite spirit, in heaven, earth or hell, could 
not have originated even the idea of being before 
he had already been; hence a personal Creator of 



GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE. IO9 

eternal excellences is essential to the origin of the 
fulness of nature and of a single finite mind, and 
he must be himself a Spirit because he is "The 
Father of Spirits." He has in the trinity of his 
nature the three distinctions essential to mind- 
intellect, sensibility and will; infinite intelligence, 
redeeming love, perfective efficiency; the Father, 
the Son and the Holy Ghost— in each of which is 
all of excellence divine. 

No terms, nor types, nor apotheses can show to 
finite minds God's full magnificence. As we can- 
not comprehend the material universe, in its mag- 
nitude and minutiae, and the spiritual is as su- 
perior to the material as mind is nobler than mat- 
ter, so he that made them both is superior to all 
which he hath made, yet every finite mind, like 
every speck of matter, proves his omnipotence, and 
both are clues to his inmost character. But in 
every visible thing are atoms numberless, and this 
world, with all its countless species of plants, in- 
sects, animals and types of minds and modes of 
life, would, multiplied by the greatest conceivable 
number, give us no just conception of the multi- 
plicity, wisdom and magnitude of our Maker's 
works. Why, in fifteen degrees by two of that 
familiar nebulae, the Milky Way, there have been 
distinctively counted fifty thousand suns, and 
eighteen million separate stars seem well defined 
in that one silvery haze. Three thousand nebulae 
like that lie visible still beyond, and indicate that 
fifty thousand millions of central suns exist— with- 
in the range of telescopic vision, and with their 
satelites are now marching round the throne of 
God with even the lightning's speed. In this world 
is also a system of material, mental and historic 
development. Here God has planted, trained, pro- 



no HASKEWS WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

pagated, various types of civil society, and history 
is so easily evolved by him that he says: "The 
nations are in his hand as the drop of a bucket, 
as the small dust of the balance." But fear not for 
this your own insignificance! For every idle word 
he holds you accountable. Even globules of water 
are globes inhabited, and every atom of dust is in- 
stinct with gravitation, which is God's incessant 
volition. And as in this world, so on each sun, 
each planet and all secondary orbs may be both 
organic nature and civilized nations, knowing 
bonds of friendship and domestic joys superior to 
ours and rearing works of art nearer to the skill 
of God than we have ever scanned, and in un- 
bounded space beyond material things, minds, im- 
mortal and accountable, may be marching in etern- 
al depths and heights of which the chasm of a 
clear sky is but an emblem. And yet, all this vast 
creation is self-evidently less than its infinite and 
perfect Author, "in whom we live and move and 
have our being." 

Gnothi se auton: "Know thy self" and so know 
God also. The achievements of thy mind here are 
hints of its future infinite mental and moral possi- 
bilities, which our Maker must surpass. And what 
can men and God together do, now aud forever? 
Man in his present state looks through the past, 
apprehends in a single conception the origin of the 
universe and rears the history of ages upon it. 
He looks into the future and anticipates events in 
that direction as remote as the morning of crea- 
tion is in the past. He lays his hand on material 
nature and subjects its mighty forces and sub- 
tlest agents to his will, and breaks its solid breast- 
works down. He weighs and perforates mountains, 
drives iron steeds over plains and seas; with pen 



GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE. Ill 

that spans a continent he sits down in the capitol 
and writes messages in the remotest village, sends 
peaus of praise through the depth of oceans, en- 
velopes the world with bars of steel and electric 
nerves, foresees eclipses to a second, makes known 
when comets will come and go, for ages hence, 
and apprehends his own disembodied companions, 
when time shall be no more. He conceives of ra- 
tional creatures older than man and mightier than 
the human mind. He classifies them on the essen- 
tial basis of moral character. He separates those 
who "have sinned and kept not their first estate" 
from those who are without immoral stain. He 
invests the one class with the responsibility of 
holding up forever the hatefulness of sin as seen 
in their own chosen experience, and to the other 
he awards the honor of being the heavenly exem- 
plars referred to in our Lord's prayer. Knowing 
"it is appointed unto men to die and after this the 
judgment," he asks: "When I leave this world, 
with which class of spirits shall I have compan- 
ionship? He hears saintly voices singing: " 'Twas 
great to speak a world from naught; but 'tis still 
greater to redeem!" 

He sees the mighty "Word by whom the worlds 
were made" enter a sinless man and do the works 
of God; sorrow over human guilt and suffer in the 
sinner's stead, saying: "Look unto me all ye ends 
of the earth and be ye saved!" He sees the cross 
and heeds the cry and is consciously saved from 
eternal companionship with the guilty to everlast- 
ing communion with the good. He sees other be- 
ings affected by his experience. "There is now joy 
in the presence of the angels of God" over his new 
position in the moral realm. The heavenly host 
say: "Glory to God in the highest! Another man is 



112 HASKKI.I. S WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

born again! " The voice of many angels, ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand, and thousands of thou- 
sands swell the chorus of joy over his change from 
a sinner to a saint. "Eye hath not seen nor ear 
heard the glory that shall be revealed in him." 
Yet he is only one of that "multitude whom no man 
can number who have washed their robes and 
made them white in the blood of the lamb." "Sure- 
ly there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of 
the Almighty giveth him understanding," and 
thence rises before us a Spiritual Universe more 
glorious than language can describe or thought de- 
fine, now thrilling with its ceaselesss throb: "Holy! 
holy! holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is 
and art to come. Thou hast made all things for 
thyself and the universe is full of thy glory!" 

V, This leads to my fifth and last illustration; 
which is from Infinite Providence. I have now il- 
lustrated, in a climactic way, the existence and 
matchless excellence of Him who created the heav- 
ens and the earth and became manifest in the flesh 
of Christ. It remains to cap the climax with the in- 
evitable conclusion that such creation implies a 
continual, supreme and kind control, which is Prov- 
idential to the last extremes in minuteness and 
magnitude. We have only rapidly to retrace our 
steps to find this illustration topmost, everywhere 
and in them all. It was provident in God to put the 
apriori, inborn witness of himself in individual 
souls; more provident to aggregate this into the 
historic belief of the whole race; yet more provi- 
dential are the harmonies and adaptations of ma- 
terial nature and more still in the coming of Christ, 
and still more in God's Christian care for every 
creature in his countless worlds. So fine and vast 
his perfect Providence appears, immensity is full 



GOD AND HIS PR0VIDE;NCE. II3 

of his paternal and redeeming love and he can see 
to it all with equal and incessant ease and care. 
The microscope and telescope allow more divine 
providences in nature to escape our notice than 
ever they discovered yet, and even prayer and 
prophecy cannot keep pace with providence in the 
progress of human life and the histoi-y of redeem- 
ing love. 

Personally, "we know that all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God" and follow 
out his plan: 

"His purposes will ripen fast. 

Unfolding every hour; 
The bud may have a bitter taste. 
But sweet will be the flower." 
"He chastens us for our profit that we may par- 
take of his divine nature." "He gives us day by day 
our daily bread and cheer, and doth not wilfully 
afflict nor grieve the sons of men." He subjected 
his own sinless humanity to the same discipline of 
sorrow that we share, that he might assure us of 
his sympathy: 

'Twas midnight, when for others' guilt 
The Man of Sorrows wept in blood; 
Yet He, that there in anguish knelt, 

Was not forsaken by our God." 
The provision of Christ was a miracle of prophe- 
cy; that was the climactic providence—redeeming 
love for which our world was made. 

Hence, collectively man knows "there is a God 
in history," as prophecy fulfilled. 

Of this the solemn oath of office, in use among 
all nations, is a sacred and sublime assurance. 
This historic pledge has existed since the flood, 
when the bow of hope was set upon the clouds of 
heaven, and God swore by himself there should 
never be another deluge. In like manner he 



114 HASKKIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

swore unto Abraham and David that his Incarna- 
tion should be their Son. So Abraham made Eliezer 
of Damascus swear by God that he would get a 
pious bride for his son Isaac, and "because there 
is none greater God swore by himself" to Abra- 
ham, saying: "In thy Seed shall all the nations of 
the earth be blessed." Again, he "swore by his 
holiness to David that his Seed shall endure for- 
ever, and his throne— which is Christendom— as the 
sun before him." Again, when the realm was 
Christianizing through dispersion and captivity, 
Isaiah foresaw the promised incarnation and said: 

"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, 
and the government shall be upon his shoulders, 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsel- 
lor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his govern- 
ment and peace there shall be no end upon the 
throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it 
and to establish it with judgment and with justice 
from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the 
Lord of Hosts will perform this." (Isa. ix.) 

"And when the fulness of time was come," the 
angel of God came upon the expectant shepherds 
on the hills of Bethlehem and said, while glory 
shone around: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy which shall be to all people; for unto 
you is born, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, 
which is Christ the Lord! And suddenly there was 
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, 
praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, good will to men!" 

In coincidence with this wondrous coming of 
our God incarnate, announced from heaven as 
"Christ the Lord," his purposes evolved this Book 
describing well his Christian works and sent it 



God and his providence. 115 

forth as the written will of God. The Angel of the 
Reformation stood with it open on both sea and 
land, till 
"The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods against a stormy sky, 

Their giant branches tossed; 
And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 
Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard and the sea. 
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthem of the free. 
Aye, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod! 
They have left unstained what there they found- 
Freedom to worship God!" 

A Bible-reading Civilization thus began all along 
the Atlantic coast. By wondrous providences the 
thirteen Colonies became this United Nation; and 
Washington well said: "I am sure there never w^as 
a people who had more reason to acknowledge a 
divine interposition in their affairs than those of 
the United States, and I should be pained to be- 
lieve that they had forgotten that agency which 
was so often manifested during the Revolution, or 
that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that 
God who is alone able to protect them." "The 
hand of Providence has been so conspicuous that 
he must be worse than an infidel who lacks faith, 
and more than wicked who has not gratitude 
enough to acknowledge his obligations." 

My Countrymen: We are now come into another 
"Perilous crisis," even greater than the Revolution- 
ary war! But, quoting the Father of our Country 
again, "The remarkable interposition of Divine 
Government in the hours of our country's deepest 



Il6 HASKKWS WASHINGTON SERMONS. 

distress and darkness (in the past) have been too 
luminous to suffer me to doubt the happy issue of 
the present contest." And so now I say: 
"It thunders, but I tremble not; 
My trust is firm in God!" 

President Buchanan's pastor invited me to come 
from Boston and preach this last sermon before 
Mr. Lincoln's inauguration (who will have his pew 
here as has his predecessor). In his note Dr. Gurley 
prayed: "God grant that 'Honest Old Abe' may be 
inaugurated in peace." So pray we all. But why 
this special prayer? Ah! The greatest civil war 
this world has ever seen is imminent, and Provi- 
dence must interpose to preserve us from self- 
destruction. Let Lincoln, lilie our Lord, this mid- 
night pray, while others wait and watch: "O my 
Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me. 
Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." Let 
all watch with him! When to-morrow he shall 
go forth to bear the burdens of state, in peace or 
war, and take this oath: "I do solemnly swear that 
I will faithfully execute the office of President of 
the United States, and will to the best of my abil- 
ity preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" 
(of the United States). Let him add, "So help me 
God!" and reverently kiss this Holy Book, while we 
look on with wondering awe at such a providential 
scene and receive again the self-sacrificing spirit 
of the Son of God, who made and saves the world! 

To this end let us pray: Infinite and perfect 
Maker and Ruler of heaven and earth, revealed in 
nature, incarnation, grace and providence; w^ho 
dost uphold all things by thy word of power, and 
kindly care for each of us, our country and man- 
kind, with philanthropic and redeeming love, O 
look now on us from thine unseen presence in our 



GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE. II 7 

midst; forgive our sins, inspire and liear our pray- 
er! Thou art in all time and space, filling all thy 
works, and each event thy will evolves, and na- 
tions and worlds are in thy hand. Our history and 
hopes are all in Thee, and Thou hast no attribute 
that takes the side of wrong. We, therefore, trem- 
ble when we think of sin, rebellion, treason, tyr- 
anny—and God, and of ancestral, ceaseless and in- 
creasing wrongs which those "confederated 
against Thee" now would spread through all the 
land and in all time; and we indeed do fear the 
Nation will soon self-dissolve unless their guilty 
cause of discord be, instead, dissolved and disap- 
pear. 

If the wrongs inflicted on a helpless race, stolen, 
bought and sold, fettered, tasked and torn apart, 
ehall be refused redress by those who would rebel 
against good government and God, we know Thou 
canst not take their cruel part, but wilt hear the 
cry of slaves and even fight with those who would 
with force of arms preserve the Union and the 
nation's life, and so "break every yoke and let the 
oppressed go free." Yet in this way of thy atoning 
will we see much misery and death, and dread the 
sight! 

O Thou, who didst tread, thyself, the winepress 
of almighty wrath, alone, wrestled in the night till 
bloody sweat fell on the ground, and "through five 
gaping wounds" didst shed thy blood to save a 
murderous, mocking world, help us to see and feel 
how much impending civil war implies, until our 
people have thee so within that they will pray as 
did Thyself, in agony divine; "O God, if it be possi- 
ble, let this cup pass; yet thy will be done!" If 
we must lay down our lives and shed our sacrifi- 
cial blood, be Thou "formed within" the Nation's 



Il8 HASKEI^I^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

heart in "glorious hope," and bid thine angels 
come and strengthen us, in camp and field and 
hospital, and let thy Holy Spirit change the minds 
of those mistaken men who hate our Christian 
Union and the cause of all mankind. O God, for- 
give them, for they know not what they do! 

We hope for peace through thine infinite and 
providential power, and pray our Country may help 
thee, O God in Christ, enforce thy golden ruleT 

And now, may our incoming Magistrate, whom 
Thou hast brought through dangers seen, unseen, 
to take official oath and trusts, be found a man 
after thine own heart, to execute with wisest awe 
thy will; and may our triune government be true 
to God and man, as firm and free as the almighty 
Elohem, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, who 
madest heaven and earth: Amen. 



^^i 



I 



Tb^ Arocricap Soldier's 
A\ission. 



April 1861. 

A Sermon Preached By Rev, T. N. Haskell, 

To Soldiers of The First Massachusetts Regiment in his Boston 

Church before they hastened to rescue Washingfton 

Beleaguered by Rebels in arms. 

[This was "The First Book for the Boys in Blue." Haskell's Lives 

of Capt. Hedley Vicars and Gen'l Henry Havelock were the next.l 



Text— Judges VI: 20 
"The Sword of The Lord and of Gideon!" 



Soldiers— We are met in the Sanctuary this Sab- 
bath afternoon at j^our request, that I may say a 
few earnest, parting words to you about your sub- 
lime and solemn mission to save your country for 
coming ages and all mankind. I pray that my 
unstudied counsels may be fit for the occasion and 
useful to you and others to the end of time. 

The true soldier is an intense man; and the most 
momentous interests hang upon his fidelity. The 
aim of the following counsels is to aid each United 
States soldier, in the crisis of 1861, to see the 
grandeur of his providential calling, and with the 
highest moral and physical courage so to pursue 
it as to save his country from impending ruin, 
and be ennobled in personal character for this and 
the future world. Trusting to your desire for im- 
provement and usefulness, even while bearing 



I20 HASKEI/I^'S WASHINGTON SiERMONS: 

arms, and especially to escape those moral ills 
which are often more hazardous to the soldier 
than the hour of battle, the following considera- 
tions are affectionately commended to you now. 
I— THK soi,dier's individuai^ity. 
The soldier does not lose his individuality by 
becoming a member of an army, and obeying the 
orders of his commander. He is still a man, and 
in his physical, social, moral, and immortal na- 
ture, should, like other men, pursue his' calling 
with a sense of individual responsibility. Napoleon 
Bonaparte said, "To make a time soldier, you must 
spoil a true man;" and, acting on that principle, 
he failed. Washington believed the true soldier 
must be a true man; and, acting on this principle, 
in the fear of God, he saved your country. It is a sad 
case when the soldier loses his self-respect, and is 
content to act as an irresponsible machine, either 
in the ordinai*y drill or on the field of battle. He 
is bound to seek the highest proficiency in his call- 
ing, from the best of motives. If he be still a man 
he should exert his manliness by appropriate ac- 
tion in obedience to orders, and appropriate aspi- 
rations in view of his cause. A proper self-respect 
is promotive of military discipline. A well-drilled 
individuality is the best cure for insubordination. 
He is the best soldier who is justly conscious of 
being the best man. 

II— THE SOIvDIER'S RESPONSIBII^ITY. 

It is impossible for a personal being to evade the 
responsibilities which grow out of his relations to 
others. All men are accountable to the Supreme 
Being and to society, on whom they depend, and 
from whom they derived their existence. Militai*y 
men are as truly bound by the laws of God and 
man as any other class. They have no right to 



THE AMERICAN SOI^DIER'S MISSION. 121 

accept any commission which has not on it the 
broad seal of the Lord of hosts. They should seek 
no ends and employ no means which He may not 
consistently bless, or which are at variance with 
the government they have sworn to obey and de- 
fend. It is self-evident that the Giver and Guar- 
dian of human life has a rightful authority over 
all men, and in no time or place can any man be 
exempted from it. So ou account of his social na- 
ture, and the fact that he is related to other be- 
ings in all time to come, his obligations to society 
cannot cease to rest upon him. And these civil as 
well as moral obligations are divinely imposed. 
"The powers that be are ordained of God"— to be 
"a terror to evil doers, and a praise of them that 
do well"— "holding not the sword in vain." 

Ill — RIGHTFUI<NESS OF DEFENSIVE WAR. 

Owing to the imperfections and wickedness of 
mankind wars are necessary evils, sometimes 
wrong on both sides, always wrong on one. When 
waged in defense of civil and religious liberty and 
morality, or for the overthrow of organized sys- 
tems of wrong, they are not inconsistent with the 
purest philanthropy, or even with Christianity it- 
self; often, indeed, are positively required by them. 

Indications of this general truth are abundant 
in the Word of God. In numerous instances mili- 
tary operations and men are spoken of in such a 
manner as to show that they enjoyed the divine 
approbation. Among these were the battles of 
Abraham to recapture his kinsman, on his return 
from which Melchisedek blessed him; the fightings 
of Israel and Amalek, when Aaron and Hur stayed 
up the hands of Moses in the attitude of prayer; 
the conquest of Canaan; the mission of David, the 
champion of Israel, against Goliath; the patriotic 



122 HASKEI,I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

defense by several of the Jewish kings against the 
Assyrians; the advice of John the Baptist to the 
Roman soldiers; the Saviour's commendation of 
the centurion's piety who had soldiers under him; 
Peter's mission to Comelius, the captain of the 
Italian band at Cesarea, and the divine commen- 
dation of this soldier's prayers. 

Indeed, Angels were sometimes sent by God to 
lead his hosts to battle and to victory, as in the 
cases of Joshua and Gideon, So when the Midian- 
ites were about to force upon Israel their system 
of barbarism and idolatry, and threatening to ex- 
terminate them from the face of the earth, God. 
summoned his people to come up and defend their 
rights and principles, making their cause his own. 
But the inhabitants of a town in the Kishon val- 
ley preferred to stay at home, and assumed a stolid 
neutrality. They had not sufficient interest in the 
principles involved to sacrifice either life or treas- 
ure to save them for mankind. Hence the sacred 
record concerning them is, "Oui-se ye Morez! Curse 
ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they 
came not up to the help of the Lord, to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty!" 

Let the soldier, then, dismiss all scruples against 
the righteousness of his awful work when called 
in the providence of God to resist, even unto death, 
the encroachments of any barbarous wrong. War 
to defend the right against the drawn sword of 
wrong, is a righteous necessity, and let them that 
first drew that sword perish by the sword! 

IV — THE AMERICAN CONTEST IN 1861. 

Never was there a cause more just than is that 
of the United States and its government in the 
present contest. For nearly fourscore years the 
several States have dwelt under a Constitution 



THE AMERICAN S0I<DIER'S MISSION. 1 23 

established by our fathers, enjoying, with scarcely 
an interruption, marked prosperity. Not an act 
of the government can be pointed out which in- 
fringed upon the rights of any section of the coun- 
try. But a conspiracy, originating more than thirty 
years ago, has at length been emboldened to at- 
tempt the overthrow of this Confederacy, and es- 
tablish on its ruins another, whose corner-stone is 
officially declared to be "Negro Slavery." To effect 
this traitorous design open war has been inau- 
gurated, and armed hosts, arrayed against the au- 
thority of the Union and its flag consecrated to 
Liberty, are now menacing Washington. 

The insurgent army, who first fired into the 
Star of the West, forbade unarmed men to carry 
food and fuel to our scanty but brave garrison, and 
then bombarded Fort Sumter, and became intoxi- 
cated with joy over their "bloodless victory," are 
commanded by usurped authority; they march un- 
der the flag of treason. They have assailed 
the right of every citizen, and sapped the founda- 
tion of Liberty's only citadel, by resisting the will 
of the people in the choice of President Abraham 
Lincoln. They have pursued a system of of- 
ficial peculation, perjury and theft. They have 
decreed their system of barbarism which has 
been the bone of our contention from the first, to 
be perpetual, and assuming Slavery is the most 
sacred of all their trusts, they declare themselves 
ready to cling to it "till the last man behind the 
last rampart has fallen." 

These are the perjured men and their minions, 
who, with stolen arms, defy the patriot hosts of the 
country. They must be overcome and subdued, or 
else the doom of our Republic will be to disappoint 
the hopes of the world, and demonstrate that there 



124 HASKEIvlv'S WASHINGTON SKRMONS: 

can never be on earth "a home for the brave, as a 
land of the free." 

To resist them unto death is no less our duty 
than to protect our abodes from the approach of 
assassins. We may feel toward them much as 
David did when he said to the Thilistine: "Thou 
comest to me with the sword; but I come to thee 
in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the 
Armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. And the 
Lord will deliver thee into my hand, that all the 
earth may know there is a God in America; for 
the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into 
our hands." Therefore, 

Haste, soldiers, to the altar 

Of Freedom and the LaAvs; 
Let not devotion falter; 
For God is in your cause. 

The foreign missionary, the converted pagan, 
the struggling and down-trodden races look now 
upon you, and all Christendom joins with you in 
the battle-cry, 

"THE SWORD OF GOD AND OF GIDEON'." 

See each gallant soldier. 

When buckling on his sword 
From the hand of his old Mother 

That points him to the Lord; 
His Sire inspects his weapons, 

His' Sisters fill his sack, 
And his heroic Sweetheart 

Helps bind it on his back. 

They all combine their courage— 

And who of all has most? 
For it appeal's that each one 

Is valiant as a host! 
Your Country can't be ruined 



THE AMERICAN SOIvDIER S MISSION. 125 

With Christian Homes like this; 
Our Fathers' God moves in you; 
Your holy cause is His! 

The Soldier of the United States, in the present 
crisis, should feel that he is "a co-worker together 
with God;" and in His name and strength should 
hold and transmit unimpaired to posterity, and the 
oppressed of all lands, that liberty which our he- 
roic fathers bequeathed to him. Let the patience 
and long-suffering of God and our government to- 
ward the rebels for months and years, give only 
the greater momentum to your stroke when you 
are called to inflict the blow of human and divine 
retribution. 

These words may seem severe; but War is se- 
vere! The rebels have risen to kill you, to destroy 
your country and degrade your flag. You must 
fight against them with "all the goodness and the 
severity of God." Be mindful of your mission to 
save your government for human good. Your 
fathers fought and died to found it. You must de- 
fend it, by killing or conquering its assailants. Be 
kind to captives, and pray that they all may have 
a better mind and help you yet to bless the world. 

V — RUI<ES OF CONDUCT. 

If the United States soldier is fighting in a 
cause so sacred, he ought to do it in the fear of 
God, actuated by such motives and adopting such 
means as God can approve and bless. He should 
observe the following general rules: 

1. Avoid profaneness. 

Said George Washington to the United States 
troops, in July, 1776: "The blessing and protection 
of Heaven are at all times necessary, but especially 
so in times of public distress and danger. The 
General hopes and trusts that every oflScer and 



126 HASKElvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a 
Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and 
liberties of his couutrj^" "The General is soiTy 
to be informed that the foolish and wicked prac- 
tice of profane cursing and swearing— a vice hith- 
erto little known in an American army— is growing 
into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example 
as well as influence, endeavor to check it; and 
that both they and the men will reflect that we 
can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven 
upon our arms if we insult God by our impiety 
and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and 
low, without any temptation, that every man of 
character detests and despises it." 

And Soldier, "God, in whose hand thy breath is," 
has expressed his displeasure against it in the 
most startling terms. "Thou shalt not take the 
name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord 
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name 
in vain." (Ex. 20:7.) "I say unto you, Swear not 
at all! neither by heaven, for its is God's throne, 
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool. Neither 
Shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst 
not make one hair white or black." (Matt. 5:24.) 

2. Attend to God's Revealed will— the Bible. 

If the soldier in this contest is engaged in God's 
cause, he should be attentive to God's Word. The 
Bible has every necessary external and internal 
evidence of divine origin and authority. It has 
something adapted to every man in every condi- 
tion and circumstance. It abounds in soldierly ex- 
amples, and illustrates every moral conflict by the 
language and usages of military life. Its principles 
are applicable to all the personal duties of the 
soldier as well as the citizen. As every man of the 
army and navy may have a Bible or Testament if 



1*HE AMERICAN SOTvDIER'S MISSION. I27 

he will, the obligation to study portions of it every 
day rests upon all. Let every one then, consciouKS 
of being enlisted in a divine cause, seek a daily 
acquaintance with the will of God, and ask the 
same Holy Spirit, by which it was revealed, to 
assist in its right use. The severest curses fell 
upon Judah because one of her kings cut the book 
of Jeremiah to pieces and burned it in the fire, and 
public sentiment did not cry out against the sacri- 
lege. (Jer. 36:23.) But that was only a small part 
of the sacred Scriptures, while many a soldier, it 
is to be feared, would sooner destroy the whole 
sacred volume than habitually read it and obey 
its precepts. 

If any man needs to study the will of God and 
be imbued with the spirit of the whole Bible, it is 
he who is called to fight in the divine name the 
battles of his country. 

3. Do not neglect Prayer. "Pray without 
ceasing." 

No soldier should be indifferent to this means of 
spiritual courage. The Christian, at least, will cer- 
tainly appreciate it. It would seem that every step 
of his battalion, every stroke of his drum, should 
beat the time of his heart's throbbings after God, 
who is going up to the battle before him. What- 
ever else is neglected, let not the soldier be for a 
day or an hour absent from the felt presence of 
his heavenly Father, in whose hand are all "the 
fortunes of war." Pray for the President daily! 

4. Remember that Others are Praying for you. 

"There is a scene w^here spirits blend; 

Where friend holds fellowship with friend. 

Though sundered far, by faith they meet 

Around one common mercy seat." 
As an aid to this communion with God by per- 



128 HASKEI^Iy'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

sonal and social worship, let the soldier think much 
of those in ten thousand Christian homes who are 
praying for him. Perhaps while his eye is turned 
to the printed page with the fountains of his heart 
open almost to weeping, a praying wife, or sister, 
or mother, is looking up toward the throne of God, 
and asking that "the Angel of the Covenant" may 
be with him to keep him. In the closet, at the family 
altar, and in silent entreaty, the aged father, the 
Christian brother, the minister of the Gospel, is 
unceasingly praying for him. He is held in af- 
fectionate remembrance by all the lovere of God 
and man in the nation, and is borne on millions of 
hearts, every moment, to the mercy-seat. When 
all the saints, and even the angels of God, are 
interested in his mission, how can he be indifferent 
to that divine aid which he must have to fulfill it, 
and may have by asking? If the soldier is tempted 
to profanity, or any impiety which excludes the 
divine favor, let him remember his parents, broth- 
ers, sisters, or children— -any, all his kindred and 
neighbors, who, when the contest is ended, will 
wish to welcome him back a virtuous man, or will 
suffer inconsolable grief to know that he was cut 
down in a state of estrangement from God, and in 
the midst of newly-acquired vices. 

5. Avoid Intemperance. 

There is no vice more destructive to the soldier, 
both morally and physically, than love of strong 
drink. The excitements, fatigues, uninviting ra- 
tions, and loss of domestic influence, together with 
a depressing consciousness of danger, make the 
social glass and the optional ration of liquor more 
dangerous foes than an army of traitors. A sol- 
dier from Massachusetts once pressed the bottle to 
the lips of his strictly temperate and much loved 



THE AMERICAN SOI^DIER'S MISSION. 1 29 

brother. That touch was almost immediately fol- 
lowed with the woe of the prophet. Their house 
was henceforth based upon the sand, and the 
tloods came, and the winds blew and beat upon 
it, and it fell, and great was the fall of it! The 
hope of their home-circle was extinguished foreA'er; 
for they both became drunkards. 

Not only does the daily use of intoxicating 
liquors impair the moral courage and self-sacrirtc- 
ing i^nrpoise essential to a good warfare, but it 
unfits the physical constitution to endure the ex- 
posures of climate, the fatigues of forced marches, 
and the loss of blood when wounded in battle. At 
the time when the stimnlants are needed, their 
medicinal virtue will have been exhausted by 
daily abuses. Forget not how Alexander, the con- 
queror of a world, was himself vanquished by 
wine, and died as a drunkard; and that it were 
far better to die in the defense of our country, 
than to escape the sword to return to honored kins- 
folks a slave to the cup, and experience the truth 
that "no drunkard shall ever enter into the king- 
dom of heaven." "Wine is a mocker, strong drink 
is raging, and wlaosoever is deceived thereby i-s 
not wise." "Look not thou upon it." "At the last 
it biteth like a seii^ent, and stingeth like an ad- 
der." 

(). Shun Licentiousness and Avarice. 

There is always a legion of devils attendant 
upon the camp life of the soldier. Their forms of 
approach are according to circumstances. Some- 
times they appear in the guise of plunder, and 
destroy all respect for the right of property. Re- 
member Achan. Woman should always be pro- 
tected in her virtue, though she be an enemy: 
while lewd women should be shunned like the 



I30 HASKELI^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

doorkeepers of hell; even though you may much 
need good matrons and nurses. "Resist the devil" 
in whatever guise, "and he will flee from you." 
"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." 
You will be made by his presence continually sen- 
sitive to every degrading license, and though 
maimed perchance in body, you will be a welcome 
guest in the homes of the virtuous, wherever you 
go. Shun every loose association of thought, word 
and deed, as you would a secret poison; for only 
so can a man be elevated into sympathy with his 
Maker, and meet the true end of his being. 

7. Take Care of Your Whole Manhood. 

The United States soldier should in every re- 
spect seek to fulfill his mission as a man and as 
a warrior. He should as far as possible be able- 
bodied, calm-headed and pure-hearted. He should 
discipline his mind and body to do his whole duty 
in the fear of God, for the good of man. He is 
morally bound to care for his physical strength, 
and cultivate the power of endurance and prompt 
and efllcient action. His body is the instrument 
through which he exerts his patriotism in the mih- 
tary crisis. It should be kept in a cleanly, hardy, 
and alert condition, completely subjected to the 
mind, even though they be separated the next mo- 
ment, and the spirit go to God who gave it. His 
mind should be disciplined to obey orders, and act 
through the body, in most perfect concert with the 
rank and file about him. There is no scene on 
earth where moral courage may more sublimely 
rule the mind, and every nerve and muscle of tlie 
body, than where the Christian soldier meets a 
foeman worthy of his steel and deadly aim. A 
single charge in such a moment may be the united 
act of a thousand executioners firm to do their 



THE AMERICAN SOLDIER'S MISSION. I3I 

duty for the highest good of unborn millions. 

The worthy bearing of the soldier in the crisis 
moment may be worth more to mankind than an 
ordinary lifetime. Let the grandeur of his cause 
lead him, with calm, physical, mental, and moral 
courage, to act on every occasion with an unfalter- 
ing fidelity to his mission. Whether he be brought 
into any sanguinary engagement or not, the whole 
man should be put in all reasonable readiness for 
it, and all so consecrated to God and His cause, 
that his immortal nature shall be elevated rather 
than degraded by his providential calling. The 
mind, by a firm reliance on the Redeemer's 
Love, should seek and secure a continual sense of 
pardoned sin, so finding "peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." Like Havelock, Vicars, 
Cromwell, Cornelius, and the pious warriors of the 
Old Testament, the soldier fighting our battles in 
this crisis should seek first to know the will of 
God, and then bend his whole manhood to accom- 
plish it. Let his warfare thus be waged under the 
banner of Christ; and at last, when dismissed to 
his rest, he may exclaim, with joyful recollec- 
tions of the past, and bright hopes of the future, 
"I have fought a good fight; I have finished my 
course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will give me, in 
that day, and not to me only, but to all them, also, 
that love His appearing. For we suffer with Him 
that we may all be glorified together." 

8. Keep your patriotism full of the "powers 
of the world to come." 

Your love of country should be as the love of 
God and human good forever. It is impossible to 
estimate the importance to this and the future 
world of the public offering you make. This you 



132 HASKEIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

felt when you left home. This they feel whom you 
have left behind. Remember, "living or dying, you 
are the Lord's." And noM% Patriot Soldiers! accept 
these parting words: You have consecrated your 
lives in a most solemn manner to serve your coun- 
try in this important crisis. The occasion is of 
sacred interest in the presence of your friends and 
neighbors, of angels and of God. The past, present 
and future are here pressing their claims upon 
you. The examples of the most excellent of earth 
rise before you with their inspiring charm. The 
perils of war confront you, with the Divine Shield 
of your patriotic fathers uplifted in the hand of 
Providence to defend you. The future of jonv 
country, and the thanks of hundreds of millions 
of the reunited American people, now as it were, 
await the heroic offerings of your lives upon the 
Nation's Altar of Christian Unity and Freedom. 
As President Lincoln so lately said in his pathetic 
and almost prescient inaugural: "The mystic 
cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield 
and patriot grave to every heart and hearthstone 
all over this broad land, shall yet swell the chorus 
of the Union, when again touched, as they surely 
will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
Yes, and the orchestra of the Nations and the ages 
will sing anthems of Thanksgiving if, under God, 
you shall save the United States of America, un- 
severed, as an ensample of the ultimate Unity and 
Freedom of the World. Go forth, then, to save our 
beleagured Capital! Serve well your country till 
this cruel war is over! God go with you, and 
bring you back to our happy greeting and over- 
whelming gratitude. The grace of our Lord and 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, our 
Heavenly Father, and the communion and comfort 
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen, 




I.INCOI.N AND HIS CABINET. 
1861. 



Liocolo'5 Ass^iSsin^ilon< 



Some Lessons from His Life and Death. 

By Rev. T. N. Haskell, of Boston, 

To the Bereft Congregation in Washington. 

First Sunday Morning after the Services 

In the Executive Mansion- 



Text— II Samuel 111:38. 



My bereft Christian Friends and Fellow Coun- 
trymen: I am deeplj^ impressed with the solemnity 
of serving you here at the request of your pastor, 
who is far away attending the funeral of our dear 
Martyred President. Dr. Guley said, when seeking 
my assistance: "You may say in my pulpit what 
you please, that is suited to the time and place." 
But one theme befits the American pulpit this 
morning: it is the Life and Death of that distin- 
guished Chief Magistrate of America, who was 
wont to meet here with you, but who will never 
again visibly mingle in your worship. Assassina- 
tion emphasizes the subject. 

Four years ago, I came on the evening before 
Lincoln's first inauguration and addressed you 
upon "The Existence and Excellence of God and 
the Profound Solemnity of the President's Oath 
Before Him." Your Pastor's invitation, as I told 
you in that premonitory address, ended with the 
words: "God grant that 'Honest Old Abe' may be 
inaugurated in peace!" This was the common 
prayer then of all our loyal people, who regarded 



134 HASKEIylv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

Abraham Lincoln as, verily, the typical example 
whom the Cynic sought so long in vain with his 
lantern. We were all prayerful, then. "The Pro- 
slavery Rebellion" was rising and assassination 
and Civil War were imminent. Both have come, 
and done their work and gone into annals of the 
world. Slavery, Rebellion and Lincoln are dead! 
But God lives, and the Nation lives "with a great 
enlargement of human liberty," and Lincoln's life 
will henceforth live in history and humanity. 
He accepted the Slaveholders' issue of War to ex- 
tend slavery and destroy the nation, and by that 
War he saved the "Union and Liberty, one and in- 
separable." 

When I think of his great worth and work 
and the weeping of the world to-day over his 
tragic death, I am forcibly reminded of the very 
graphic account of Chief Abner's fate and the 
funeral scene where King David walked beside his 
bier and, weeping, said: "Know Ye Not that a 
Prince and a Great Man Hath Fallen? As a man 
falleth before wicked men, so he fell." 

Abner had just effected the reunion of the He- 
brew Commonwealth, and great was the grief for 
his assassination. But the unbounded sorrow at 
his funeral can barely suggest the intense and 
universal grief this morning, that America's ablest 
and best Chief Magistrate has been murdered in 
the midst of his "many mighty works" of good for 
all mankind. 

"He bore his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clean in his great office, that his virtues 
Will plead, like Angels trumpet-tongued, against 
Th« deep damnation of his taking off!" 

By such a death of such a man, humanity has 
been so much bereft and shocked the Nation's 



I<INCOI.N'S ASSASSINATION. 135 

heart seems bursting now with grief, and all the 
civil world sheds tears. The Foreign Ministers 
from many lands have cried, as if his nearest 
friends, around his catafalque— because the dead 
had done so much so well, and fell before such 
wicked means. It is meet that we, too, should 
gather round his draped and vacant seat and vent 
our sorrow, remembering, though, that in our grief 
there is an element of "joy unspeakable and full 
of glory." We mourn at Lincoln's Death but are 
exceeding glad that Liberty, for which he died, 
will live enriched by his endeared remembrance, 
and that his name and example in history will 
shine brighter and be more and more effective from 
age to age. Even now I see his majestic mind and 
moral worth, a model for all mankind, and Lin- 
coln's Historic Personality will have an ever-grow- 
ing vitality and power. The secret of that power 
was his supreme purpose to please God and do 
good; "to do the will of Him that sent him, and 
to finish his work." His conscientious, philan- 
thropic life led to his final coronation with a mar- 
tyr's crown. 

I 

SOME I^ESSONS FROM I.INC0I,N'S WFE. 

Let us, therefore, comfort ourselves, first, by 
considering his Simple Life and the Sublime Les- 
sons which his Illustrious Example will everywhere 
and forever enforce upon the civil world. 

We all feel at once the Christly Spirit of Phi- 
lanthropy and Faith in God that this "Great Prince 
of Men" possessed. This he early derived from his 
pious Mother and the few books that he read. 
Aesop's Fables, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's Progress, Weemse's Life of Washington 
and the Household Word of God, were earnestly 



136 HASKEI^Iv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS*. 

perused hj bim, when a poor, back-woods boy. Per- 
haps it was well he had so few and just such 
books. In the sacred solitudes of the forest; in the 
severe struggles for subsistence; in the solemn re- 
membrance of bis sainted Mother— for she died in 
his tenth year and left his heart sad and tender- 
he rose to youth and manhood with an intense 
yearning to be wise and useful. He was from a 
boy honest, earnest and well balanced, hating lust, 
intemperance, blasphemy, idleness and base en- 
deavor, practicing from choice the Christian prin- 
ciples his mother loved and cherished— though ot 
these in private life he made no open, public con- 
fession. In personal intercourse, however, he often 
confessed Christ in ways as effective as they were 
confidential. The year before his nomination to be 
President I rode some time with him on a steam- 
boat down the Mississippi river. When we sepa- 
rated he said: "I am glad to know you. I like 
Christian people and have profound respect for 
pure religion, though I have never made a public 
profession of it." About that time he said to Mr. 
Batemau, Superintendent of Public Instruction in 
Illinois, he had "an incessant and very deep so- 
licitude about the future," and yet evinced such 
faith in the Christian's God that the distinguished 
educator was filled with awe at the unexpected 
development of deep, self-distrusting piety and con- 
fidence in God's good and Sovereign purpose. The 
great-hearted patriot and coming President said 
he had in him "an undefinable and oppressive sense 
of future responsibilities, which seemed holding 
in reserve for him, and while he would not fore- 
bode his fate he wished to be well fitted for it." 
These were presentiments, then, that seem now 
like prophecy— and he was indeed seer-like. He 



I.INCOI,N'S ASSASSINATION. 1 37 

was soon nominated, elected, and prepared to enter 
on his duties as President with a truly prayerful 
patriotism and tremulous foreboding. 

His Farewell on leaving Springfield was Pro- 
phetic. He said to his neighbors gathered at the 
depot, to witness his departure: 

"i\Iy Friends— No one, not in my position, can 
appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To 
this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived 
more than a quarter of a century; here my chil- 
dren were born, and here one of them lies buried. 
I know not how soon I shall see you again." (His 
public duties forbade his return— till now his body 
is borne thither for burial.) "A duty devolves upon 
me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has 
devolved upon any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never could have succeeded, ex- 
cept for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which 
he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed 
without the same Divine aid which sustained him; 
and in the same Almighty Being I place my re- 
liance for support, and hope you, my friends, 
will all pray that I may receive that Divine assist- 
ance without which I cannot succeed, but with 
which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an 
affectionate Farewell!" 

In Independence Hall, Philadelphia, he said, as 
if ready to be offered: 

"I am filled with deep emotion at finding my- 
self standing here, in this place where were col- 
lected the Wisdom, the Patriotism, the Devotion to 
Principle, from which sprang the institutions un- 
der which we live. I have often thought of the 
dangers which were incurred by the men who as- 
sembled, here and formed and adopted the Declara- 
tion of Independence. I have pondered over the 



138 HASKEWS WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

trials that were endured by the officers and sol- 
diers of the army that achieved that Independence. 
I have often inquired what great principle it was 
that kept this confederacy so long together, and 
have concluded it Avas the Sentiment in the Decla- 
ration of Independence which gave Liberty, not 
alone to the people of this country, but I hope to 
the world for all future time; that gave promise 
that in due time the weight would be lifted from 
the shoulders of all men! This i« the Sentiment 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, 
my friends, can this counti-y be saved upon this 
basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the 
happiest men in the world if I can help save it. 
If it cannot be saved on that principle, it will be 
truly awful! But if the country cannot be saved 
without giving up that principle (I w^as about to 
say), I would rather be assassinated on this spot 
than to surrender it!— My friends, this is a wholly 
unexpected speech. I may, therefore, have said 
something indiscreet. I have said nothing, how- 
ever, but what I am willing to live by, and, if it 
be the will of Almighty God, to die by." 

Was ever utterance wiser, kinder or more truly 
patriotic and prophetical of one's own instrumen- 
tality and prospective resultant martyrdom for a 
great Christian principle? I can recall the words 
of no other man that were more so. 

YOU ALIv RECOGNIZE THE CHRISTIAN 
EXCEI.I,ENCE OF HIS INAUGURALS. 

In his first Inaugural Address he said with a 
Spirit of Christian faith and conciliation to the 
Slaveholders: 

"My disaffected fellow-countrymen! In your 
hands not in mine, is the momentous issue of Civil 
War. You can have no conflict without being your- 



i,incoi.n's assassination. 139 

selves the aggressors. You have no oath regis- 
tered in Heaven to destroy the Government; while 
I shall have a most solemn one to 'preserve, pro- 
tect and defend' it. I am loath to close. We are 
not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies! 
Though passion may have strained, it must not 
break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords 
of memory stretching from every battlefield and 
patriot grave to every living heart and hearth- 
stone all over this broad land will yet swell the 
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature. 
Intelligence, Patriotism, Christianity and a firm 
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
favored land, are still competent to adjust in the 
best way all our present difficulties." 

But the Secessionists had ceased to be patriotic, 
repudiated civil Liberty, and fired upon the flag 
that floats the symbol of Christian Freedom over 
all our soil and upon every sea. For four weary 
years they waged their wicked war in defense of 
Slavery. It was on a famous battlefield of that 
pro-slavery war that Lincoln spoke these Spontan- 
eous and inspired words: 

"Four-score and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth upon this continent a New Nation, 
conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposi- 
tion that all men are created equal. Now we are 
engaged in a Great Civil War, testing whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi- 
cated, can long endure. We ai*e met on a great 
battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a 
portion of it as a final resting place of those who 
gave their lives that that Nation might live. It is 
altogether fitting and proper that we should do 
this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we 



I40 HA9KEIyI,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. 
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
here, have consecrated it far beyond our power to 
add or detract. The world will little note nor long 
remember what we say here, but it can never for- 
get what they did here. It is for us, the living, 
rather to be dedicated here to the unselfish work 
that they have thus far so nobly earned on. It is 
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us— that from these honored dead 
we take increased devotion to the cause for which 
they here gave the last full measure of devotion— 
that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not 
have died in vain; that the Nation shall, under 
God, have a 'new birth' of Freedom, and that the 
Government of the people, by the people and for 
the people shall not perish from the earth." 

This speech in full should be often quoted. It 
is the best exposition of Christian Patriotism that 
can be found in human words. He told Rev. Dr. 
Trask he loved consciously "Christ and Him Cru- 
cified," when thus consecrating that our country's 
greatest sacrificial place, the Soldiers' Cemetery of 
Gettysburg. 

But he had unconsciously this Martyr Spirit of 
Christ many years before that. For example he said 
in 1858, before a vast assembly in his famous sena- 
TORiAi. DEBATES WITH DOUGLASS, " You may do any- 
thing with me you choose. You may not only defeat 
me for the Senate, but you may take me aitd put me to 
death! While pretefidiftg 710 i^idifference to earthly 
honors, I do claim, to be actuated by something higher 
than anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every 
paltry a7id insignificant thought for any man' s success ^ 
It is nothing; I am nothing; fudge Douglass is noth - 
ing. But do not destroy that immortai, embi,em 



I.INCOI,N'S ASSASSINATION. 141 

OF HUMANITY— 'THE DECI.ARATION OF INDEPEN- 
DENCE.' " 

The Gettysburg speech was November 10, 1SG3. 
A year later (November 21, 1864) he wrote Widow 
Bixby of Boston "The thanks of the Republic" her 
five sons died to save; and prayed that God would 
assuage her grief. That letter is the best exhibit 
we have of the heart of that War. 

HIS HOPE IN GOD STII^I, SAVED HIS COUNTRY. 

Just before the surrender of the entire insurgent 
army, Lincoln said in his last Inaugural (March 4, 
1865, a little over one month since): "It may seem 
strange that any man should ask a just God's as- 
sistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of 
other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be 
not judged. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we 
pray that this scourge of war may speedily pass 
away. Yet if God wills that it shall continue until 
all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred 
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, 
and evei-y drop of blood drawn with the lash shall 
be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was 
said three thousand years ago, so still it must be 
said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether." This language, like his Proc- 
lamations for National Fasts and Thanksgiving 
sounds like the old Hebrew prophets. 

Thus he expressed "the goodness and severity 
of God" in the sentiments of the Gospel; but ho 
concludes his sage address in a still more concil- 
iatory spirit by saying: "With malice toward none, 
with charity for all, with firmness in the right as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
finish the work we are in: to bind up the Nation's 
wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle, and for his widow and orphans; to do all 



142 HASKEi;i,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 
peace among ourselves and all Nations." Accord- 
ing to his prayer, 

THE "SCOURGE OF WAR" PASSED SOON AWAY. 

As he spoke the clouds were lifting. Stars in- 
deed, at noon, shone out on the retreating storm. 
Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Lincoln entered 
Richmond, and on his return he gave his last pub- 
lic address from his window, the evening of April 
11th, three days before his death. With what be- 
nignity of voice and visage did he say: "Fellow- 
citizens, we are met not in sorrow, but in glad- 
ness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and 
Richmond and the surrender of the principal insur- 
gent army give hope of a righteous and speedy 
peace, whose joyous expression cannot be re- 
strained. In the midst of this, however. He from 
whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. 
Nor must those whose harder part gives us the 
cause of joy be overlooked." Thus his Christian 
Patriotism crowned the scene when 

"Truth, crushed to earth, arose again 

With all the life of God as hers. 
While Error, wounded, writhed in pain. 
And died amid its worshipers." 

But as the Slavery Heresy was slain the ser- 
pent turned his fiery sting and laid fair Liberty's 
Guardian low by a single hissing bolt— and our first 
assassination of a Chief Magistrate seized upon 
the very best of men, who lived to heal the Na- 
tion's heart and only broke it when he died! But 
the cruel Pro-slavery War was conquered and his 
work was done. He had fought a good fight; he 
had kept the faith; he had finished his course; he 
was ready to be offered, and the fatal bullet came. 
He was gathered to his rest as a shock of corn 



WNCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. 143 

that is fully ripe, and a crown of righteousness is 
laid up for him which the righteous Judge will 
surely give him; while the Christian Patriotism 
that Abraham Lincoln embodied shall be as seed- 
corn for all countries in all coming time. The his- 
torians of the future will be filled with awe and 
wonder at the immense work this great, good man 
hath done. But he, in his humble and truthful na- 
ture, attributed all his grand achievements to Prov- 
idence, as himself a true child of God. Indeed, he 
recognized a Divine hand in both public and per- 
sonal events. He regarded his early life, his public 
elevation and his preparation for it and uphold- 
ing in it as peculiarly Providential. The age and 
country into which he came are ordained of God 
for the growth of such devoted public servants. 
The United States, in the nineteenth century, 
awards noble births to persons raised in humblest 
walks of life. Yet, though any son of a poor sire 
may be such a man as Lincoln was and worthy to 
do all his works, and none can say he will not be 
a President, still not every boy can be Chief Mag- 
istrate, of course. Of the many million poor men's 
sons, the country cannot average more than about 
one President in each quadriennial, and some of 
these have been inferior to the full measure of 
their emergencies. But Lincoln rose with the Di- 
vine Fullness to fill well his office. All life long 

HE I^EARNKD HOW GOOD 

a thing it is "to suffer and be strong." And so his 
life will help lift up the struggling sons of want 
throughout the world to win the best positions pos- 
sible, and to employ this power for the production 
of the greatest providential good. Lincoln never 
seemed elated with one thought of personal re- 
nown, nor did one deed for fame, 



144 HASKKLIy'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

YET HE FEI.T HIMSEI<F INCORPORATED INTO THE 
HISTORY OF THE WORI.D. 

He said to Congress, December 1, 1862, after 
urging a Plan of Compensated Emancipation: "I 
trust, in view of the great responsibility resting 
upon me, you will perceive no want of respect to 
yourselves, in any undue earnestness I may seem 
to display. The dogmas of the quiet past are inade- 
quate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled 
high with difficulties, and we must rise with the 
occasion. As our cause is new, so we must think 
anew, and act anew. We must disenthral our- 
selves and then we shall save our country. We 
cannot escape Histoi-y. The fiery trial through 
which w^e pass will light us down, in honor or dis- 
honor, to the latest generation. We say we are 
for the Union. The world will not forget that we 
say this. We know how to save the Union. The 
world knows we know how to save it. We— even 
here— hold the power and bear the responsibility. 
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom 
to the free— honorable alike in what we give and 
what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly 
lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other means may 
succeed. This could not fail. The way is plain, 
peaceful, generous, just— a way which, if followed, 
the world will forever applaud, and God must 
forever bless!" 

When the members from the "border states' 
and some others could not see the way plain to 
adopt his plan, and he finally had to bear the bur- 
den and tread, as it were, the wine press alone 
and proclaim the rebels' slaves all free, he wrote 
to an honorable citizen of Kentucky (April 4, 1864) : 

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not 
wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when 



LINCOI^N'S ASSASSINATION. 145 

I did not so think and feel. And yet I liave never 
understood that the Presidency conferred on me 
an unrestricted right to act officially upon this 
judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took 
that I would 'to the best of my ability preserve, 
protect and defend the Constitution of the United 
States.' I could not take the office without taking 
the oath. I understood, however, that my oath 
to preserve the Constitution Imposed on me the 
duty of preserving the Government, the Nation, of 
which that Constitution was the organic law. 
When in 1862 I made earnest and successive ap- 
peals to the Border States to favor compensated 
emancipation, I believed the necessity for military 
emancipation would come, unless averted by that 
measure. They declined the proposition, and I was 
driven to the alternative of either surrendering the 
Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying a 
strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the 
latter. I attempt no compliment to my own sa- 
gacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but 
confess plainly that events have controlled me. 
The Nation's Condition now is not what either 
party or any man devised or expected. God alone 
can claim it! Whither it is tending seems plain. 
If God now wills the removal of a great wn*ong, 
and wills also that we of the North, as well as you 
of the South, shall pay for our complicity in that 
wrong, impartial History will find there new cause 
to attest and revere the justice and goodness of 
God." 

He prayed: "Our Father which art in Heaven; 
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done;" and he 
studiously practiced to fulfill his prayer. He signed 
the Emancipation Edict (with a weary hand, shaken 
by so many thousand citizens on the New Year's 



146 HASKELI^'S WASHINGTON SKRMONS: 

Day) and "invoked on it the blessing of Almiglity 
God and the considerate judgment of mankind." 
His last official act was to write upon a card for a 
Massachusetts man he feared he had wounded with 
some mistaken words: "Let Mr. Ashmun come to 
me to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock." But thirty 
minutes before that time the body of Lincoln died. 
O that we and all that weep, and all that lost their 
lives that Liberty throughout all lands might live, 
may have his Heavenly Master's passport: "Let 
them come to Me!" And what a multitude of Chris- 
tian patriots have thus passed away to glory and 
to God. I see them; O I see them, "a multitude 
whom no man can number, who have gone up 
through great tribulation and washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
II. 

BUT IN WNCOI^N'S ASSASSINATION THEKE MUST BE 
SERIOUS I.ESSONS, ALSO. 

The first historic death on earth was by assas- 
sination. Abel died the proto-martyr and he be- 
ing dead, yet speaketh. The voice of his blood 
crieth unto us from the ground, and will so speak 
to the end of time. Many centuries after his death 
inspired men spoke of him and his murderer and 
said: "Cain was of the wicked one and slew his 
brother because his own works were evil and his 
brother's righteous." He probably beat him to 
death with a club. He surely did not shoot 
him. A second Biblical example was that of 
Abner, before described, who was killed by 
the envious Joab. His victim had just united 
again the disrupted Hebrew nation, when the 
wicked assassin called him stealthily aside and 
stabbed him. If he had had a pistol he might 
have shot him. Jlence, arose that touching scene 



I.INCOI,N'S ASSASSINATION. 147 

when the afflicted King exclaimed to the moving 
procession: "Know ye not that a Prince and a 
Great Man hath fallen this day in Israel!" Then, 
apostrophising the dead, he said: "Thy hands were 
not bound, nor thy feet put in fetters; but as a 
man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou." 
Afterwards, pointing to the assassin, he said to 
his son: "Thou knowest what Joab did to Abner; 
let not his hoary head go down to the grave in 
peace." So, Joab fled and took hold on the horns 
of the altar, but Solomon said: "Fall upon him 
and slay him and take away the innocent blood 
which he shed." "Then Benaiah slew him and he 
was buried in the wilderness." 

THE END OP AI.Iv ASSASSINS IS BAD. 

The long list of murderers of civil magistrates 
has not one worthy man, not one wise example; 
not one instance of ultimate good to the assassins 
themselves or to their abetors. There never was a 
noble character willing to murder a king or mag- 
istrate. Brutus may boast his love for Caesar as 
only below his love of Country; but he is the cold- 
blooded conspimtor and murderer still, and "mur- 
der will out" upon its authors! Even the "noble 
Brutus" had a suicide's ignoble end. 

THE NAME ASSASSIN HAS A SERPENT SOUND. 

The word comes from a wicked custom of an 
Ishmaelitic clan who claimed the right to kill by 
stealth the men or monarchs that might be stand- 
ing in their w^ay. They prepared themselves for 
their devilish deeds by a poisonous drink, like 
whisky in our day, which they called hashish, 
and those who used it were called hashashen. 
This deed has therefore the most diabolic associa- 
tions from the start. It is conceded there can be 
but one side to this cruel sin. The assassination 



148 HASKKI.i;'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

of a foe or friend is murder, foul; and if be be a 
magistrate wbo is made offensive by bis faults or 
bis fidelity in public office, it is more tban murder 
in tbe first degree. It is tbe secret, studied, per- 
sonal taking of a public life witbout autbority of 
law, and, tbougb a stealtby act, is still an open 
attack upon tbe autbority of tbe State, If it be 
anywbere approved, it will itself oppress and des- 
olate tbe land. In Israel's revolting tribes, 
In swift succession eigbt assassins seized 
Tbe tyrant sceptre in tbe truant state. 
And soon tbe nation bad destroyed itself. It lives 
in bistory as "Tbe Lost Ten Tribes," wliile otbers 
took possession of tbe assassin's land and left it 
also "desolate." Several of tbe great Sultans and 
Czars bave been assassinated witb a sort of pop- 
ular sanction, but as a result public cbaracter and 
private conscience offered poor protection for prop- 
erty and life in Russia, and in Turkey still. And so 
many civil magistrates bave so far in otber parts 
been by assassins put to deatb tbat (witb Ricbard 
II., in Act III.) we feel ready to exclaim: 
"For Heaven's sake, let us sit upon tbe ground 
And tell sad stories of tbe deatb of Kings- 
How some bave been deposed, some slain in war; 
Some baunted by tbe gbosts tbey bave deposed; 
Some poisoned by tbeir wives, some sleeping killed, 
All murdered: For witbin tbe bollow crown 
Tbat rounds tbe mortal temples of a king 
Keeps Deatb bis court!" 

the; dangers to kven good authority are very 
great, because of desperate and 
vicious men. 
Assassins seem to be no "respectors of persons," 
eitber. Tbeir victims bave been good, bad, indif- 
ferent—and yet Deatb by sucb means, even, bas 



I^INCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. 149 

seemed to love a "shining mark." It will be well 
for us to pass thoughtfully, though rapidly, through 
this horrid retrospect, enough at least to sympa- 
thize with those who rule, whose persons may be 
in unsuspected peril at any time. The cases taken 
are as accurate and apropos as my hasty compila- 
tions would permit. Turning first to France, we 
take the famous case of Henry Fourth, the author 
of the Humane Edict of Nantes. Henry the III. 
had been slain and the house of Volois ceased. The 
right of inheritance passed now to Henry of Na- 
varre, Who, though a professed Catholic, espoused 
the cause of the Protestants that were oppressed; 
issued for the Huguenots his decree of protective 
peace, and sought to unite all Christian countries 
in one nation of friendly and Confederated States 
—a Christian Union considerably like our own. 
While on his way one day, in 1610, to greet his 
noble chief, the Duke of Sully, an envious Roman- 
ist, called Ravaillac, stabbed him in his carriage, 
was caught and killed by quartering, the cruel way 
then in vogue of putting worst criminals to death. 
We cannot go through the whole history of the 
Gallic land, but speak at once of the several at- 
tempts to assassinate the present incumbent of the 
French throne. Napoleon III. In October, 1852, a 
shell was exploded near the Emperor, which was 
meant to kill him instantly, of course. On the 5th 
of July, 1853, another similar effort was made to 
take his life. In 1855 an Italian, Pionari, shot at 
him twice. In 1857 Tibaldi, Bartoletti and Grelli, 
three Italian conspirators, tried again to kill him. 
Januaiy 4, 1858, four more Italians, Orsini, Gomes, 
Piri and Rudo, tried to blow up with bombs both 
the Emperor and his Wife. Though a hundred un- 
suspecting persons were killed, the crowned head 



I50 HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SKRMONS: 

and consort both escaped unhurt. And still again, 
not quite two years ago, in 1863, a larger band of 
Romanists conspired to kill Napoleon and Eugenia 
both; but they still were spared for further de- 
signs of God. Louis Napoleon's purpose to im- 
perialize our continent need cause no fear; for 
he will either die, or dethrone himself, instead. 

Turning to England, the examples there, too, 
are numerous. Yet, as Macaulay says, "The 
English have for ages abhorred assassination, so 
that as soon as such design ceases to be a secret 
hidden in the recesses of one gloomy and ulcerated 
heart, the risk of detection and failure becomes 
extreme." This was true in the case of Edward 
II. Though he was so unpopular that he sought 
to save his life by abdication, yet he was killed 
by his keepers at the instigation of his foreign 
queen and Mortimer, her paramour. Isabella of 
France was thereafter utterly despised; Mortimer 
was beheaded and all their instruments were put 
to death. Soon after this, in 1437, King James the 
I. of Scotland was cruelly murdered by Sir Robert 
Graham and his aids, who were arrested and ex- 
ecuted with great severity. Graham's body was 
quartered and sent to different parts of the realm, 
while his head was placed above the capital gate 
and his accomplices were carried in gibbets through 
the streets and then quartered also. 

Babbington attempted to assassinate Elizabeth, 
"Queen Bess;" Fawkes to kill the English King 
James I., and Gerald to murder Cromwell, but 
these all without success; the would-be assassins 
were detected, convicted, punished— four executed! 

In 1696 Barclay, with eight assistants and even 
more conspirators, plotted against the life of Wil- 
liam of Orange, but they were so betrayed that in- 



Uncoi^n's assassination. 151 

formation reached the King, and, instead of riding 
when and where they were to smite him down, he 
went next day to Parliament and said: "But for 
the protection of a gracious Providence I were 
this day a corpse and the kingdom entered by the 
French!" Tlie two dread ideas— invasion and as- 
sassination—were enough to set indignant England 
all afire to protect their king and crown, while 
Barclay and his aids were seized and hanged. 

ENGI^AND'S NDBLEST OUEEN AND EMPRESS, 

Her Majesty, Victoria, has had many narrow 
escapes. It is a question if there ever was a "lord- 
ly brow" more justly or more generally and so 
long beloved. She is honored for her office and her 
excellence, and England herself will sit a mourn- 
ing widow when her widowed queen shall die. 
She has been much revered; yet as early as 1840, 
Edward Oxford, a lad of seventeen years, fired 
deliberately at her twice, but missed his aim. He 
was found insane and sent to an asylum. In 1842 
John Francis, a machinist, standing in the spot 
where young Oxford stood, shot at her in her 
carriage as she passed; he also missed, but was 
tried, convicted, sentenced to death, but commuted 
to imprisonment for life. The day his sentence 
was changed, however, a poor hunch-back boy 
pointed a pistol at her carriage and tried to shoot, 
but was at the instant caught and sent to prison 
for eigheen months. In 1849 an Irish bricklayer, 
named Hamilton, shot at her Majesty a simple 
wad, and was transported for seven years. Lieu- 
tenant Pate of her Huzzars was also exported for 
striking her in the face. 

MUCH LIKE THESE WERE THE ATTACKS ON 
PRESIDENT JACKSON'S I.IFE. 

As some of you recollect, when General Jack- 



152 HASKETX'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

son, in 1835, returned from the funeral of a member 
of Congress, he was met near the Rotunda by a 
young Englishman, named Richard Lawrence, 
and menaced by two loaded pistols aimed directly 
at his breast. The young man snapped them both 
and neither was discharged. On examination he 
was found to be so much distressed for want of 
work and so incensed by the press against the 
President, as the probable cause of the financial 
condition of the country, that he was adjudged 
melancholic and insane. President Jackson was 
also assaulted on his way to Mt. Vernon once. 
Many other unsuccessful attempts at assassination 
have been provoked by real or imaginary wrongs 
by the rulers who were assailed; and why these 
should not have lost their lives and Lincoln have 
been slain, with such apparent ease, is only an- 
swered by saying, "Even so Father, for so it 
seemed good in Thy sight." 

THIS BRINGS CI^OSER BEFORE US I.INC0I,N'S 
CWMACTIC CASE. 

The cause® of historic assassinations and their 
attempts have seemed so far to be: Hatred of good 
men by bad ones, as in the case of Abel; the envy 
of ambitious men, like Joab stabbing Abner; the 
passion for sovereign power, as in the kingdom of 
Israel; the popular feeling of oppression, as in 
Hungary and Turkey; the anger of disappointed 
aspirants for office, as in Lieutenant Pate, who 
desired promotion; the strifes of party factions 
and inflated politicians, as in the case of Graham 
and King James of Scotland, and liable to be in this 
country; the malignity of the irresponsible Party 
Press, making many persons to feel enraged 
against those in authority, as in the case of Law- 



WNCOI^N'S ASSASSINATION. I53 

reiice's assault on President Jackson; the real or 
partial insanity of persons of a cranky and ill-be- 
haved nature, as in the case of several of Queen 
Victoria's assailants, and lastly and more specific- 
ally, the Passion for Slavery and opposition to true 
and Christian freedom, as in this late assassina- 
tion of President Abraham Lincoln. There has 
probably never been among men a popular moral 
msanity so potent and with all so self-evidently ab- 
surd and contradictoi'y as that which seized upon 
the Southern section of this country and wanton- 
ly waged the cruel war which just now is over; 
that has aforetime stolen and transported unof- 
fending people, to enslave them and their posterity, 
all under the Declaration: "We hold these truths 
to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights; that among these are 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that 
to secure these rights governments are instituted 
among men." It was such a government Lincoln 
died to save. He was pre-eminently the defender 
of Chi-istian Liberty for our own and other lands 
until "the weight shall be lifted from the should- 
ers of all men," while the Rebellion rose professed- 
ly to build up another government within our 
bounds, having "slavery for its chief cornerstone." 
The incarnation of this rebellion was in Wilkes 
Booth. 

I SHAI,!, THEREFORE CAr.L THE MURDER OF 
LINCOI^N A MARTYRDOM. 

He was sacrificed as surely for his devotion to 
the will of God as any person ever was or ever 
could be. "They hated him without cause." They 
killed him because their deeds were evil and his 
were right. The tragedian, trained to be untruth- 



154 HASKEr,I,'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

ful, slew the defender of Freedom as if in defense 
of liberty, and left his murderous lie indelibly on 
the face of history to define the genius of the 
Slave-Confederacy forever. 

And would you see and hear how this dark deed 
was done? Shall we "adventure ourselves into the 
theater" of Lincoln's assassination? It is not, I 
know, a safe place for Presidents— not physically 
or morally perfectly safe for other men; nor suit- 
able, even in fancy, to enter on the Sacred Sab- 
bath. Yet the great, good Lincoln had gone there 
to gain a little rest and recreation— had gone in 
obedience to "an imperious custom;" went there 
that fatal night for fear the expectant populace 
might miss him, who had some of them come from 
afar in hope to see him, and would no doubt in 
disappointment disturb his official duties in need- 
less efforts to behold and greet him. Though we 
are sorry he went there, we will not censure his 
mission or his motives, nor yet deride the Stage or 
Drama. He was there that night, and there was 
murdered. We do hesitate indeed to enter to-day 
because it is a Theater, where the high priest is 
hypocricy in fact and feeling, even in tragedy— 
we hesitate more because the tragedy we are to 
witness is a real one, and the actor's use of weap- 
ons will be fierce and fatal, and the fact stranger, 
by far, than fiction. But we and all the world 
would know how and where the great benefactor 
fell; so follow with me into Ford's Theater, Tenth 
street, of this Federal City, on the fatal night of 
our Nation's first bereavement by assassination. 
The building is plain, not beautiful, nor particu- 
larly forbidding. It was once a Baptist church— I 
have preached in it. It was boughten by Mr. Ford 
and rebuilt and fitted up with box and pit and 







rf I 



. r' 












Ml \ 1 


xpi 


f 3 , ^ 


'f1 




FORD'S THKATKK — 
WHEKK LINCOLN WAS ASSASSINATED. 




J. WILKKS BOOTH. 



IvINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. 155 

gallery, with platform, halls, dark places and side- 
door ways in abundance— in adapting which to this 
deed of blood Satan had been devoutly busy. 
He has found and fixed securely the dark corner 
near the entrance to the President's box, where 
the assassin may be secreted. He has assisted him 
in loosening the spring locks to the doors, so that 
they can move easily and without noise or friction. 
He has aided him in making the aperture in the 
door panel so the murderer, unseen, may see the 
unsuspecting Magistrate. He has helped him select 
his horse, his spurs, his poniard and his pistol, and 
see! he is now inspiring him, as with stealthy step 
he comes to the aperture to inspect the exact time 
when the real tragedy will be most telling and 
triumphant. The audience is attentive to the play, 
which is "Our American Cousin," and is smoothly 
progressing, when suddenly the door to the Presi- 
dent's seat is opened and— as if in fiendish irony— 
the word "Freedom!" is shouted. Then a pistol is 
fired and the ball enters the President's brain and 
closes the door of his consciousness completely. 
Mrs. Lincoln, seated by him, shouts: "The Presi- 
dent is murdered!" An attendant seizes the as- 
sassin and receives a wound from his well-trained 
stilletto; then, leaping upon the stage and brand- 
ishing his dagger, the real tragedian shouts, as 
with the expiring voice of the Rebellion: "The 
South is avenged! 'Sic Semper Tyranis!'" and then 
escapes through the halls, doors and alley, aided 
by an accomplice, lights upon his hired steed and 
rides away to some Southern rendezvous, where 
he, with his co-conspirators, may hide under the 
hateful corpses of Slavery, Treason and Rebellion! 



156 HASKELIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

NOR IS THIS TRAGEDY AT FORD'S THEATER ALL, 
THAT WE SEE AND HEAR OF. 

As Lincoln's unconscious body is borne across 
tlie street to a hospitable place, news comes that 
the sanctity of Secretary Seward's home and the 
sacred stillness of his sick room have been invaded 
by a ruffian, who stabbed again and again the 
weak and overworked form of the philanthropist 
and statesman, who was nearest to Lincoln in life, 
office and affection. And then, running from various 
departments, come messages telling how Vice 
President Johnson's life has been attempted, how 
Secretary Stanton and General Grant have been 
greatly beset by persons of suspected purpose and 
appearance, and all night long the city is in com- 
motion and the sensitive wires are waking all the 
world to weep over the wickedness that assassin- 
ated the best President of the freest and best Re- 
public known to history. If assassins seek such 
men, what civil rulers can be safe? And what 
penalties and precautions must we henceforth em- 
ploy? It's well to ask. At twenty minutes past 7 
o'clock in the morning of April 15, 1865, in this 
City of Washington, the body of Abraham Lincoln 
ceased to breathe, and with lightning speed the 
sad message sped its way— "The President is deadl" 
And then is added, "Andrew Johnson is Presi- 
dent," reminding one of the sadness and joy that 
have before been joined in the sigh and shout, 
"The King is dead! Long live the KingI" You 
know with what hope the heart-broken peo- 
ple rallied to support the Vice President in his 
assumption of the Presidential Office, and what 
mingling emotions are still moving throughout' the 
land. The repentent Rebels, realizing that they 
have lost the best friend the South ever had, 



I^INCOIvN'S ASSASSINATION, 1 57 

are freely mingling tears with us. Four million 
Freedmen are almost frantic in their grief that this 
great Liberator has been slain— good in his great- 
ness and great in his goodness— and forty million 
people join with these to pray that the New Presi- 
dent may be both kind and wise, and that his life 
may be prudent and safe. And here let me repeat 
my heartfelt lines, published the morning of the 
last obsequies at the Executive Mansion, three days 
ago, but equally appropriate here and now: 

With awe profound this day 
The Nation bows to pray 

In bitter grief; 
All through the stricken land 
The broken-hearted stand 
And mourn on every hand. 

Their Martyred Chief. 

Th' Almisrhtv Ruler hears 
His sorrowing people's tears 

Fall at his feet; 
Makes our just cause his care, 
Indites and hears our prayer, 
And for us still makes bare 

His Mercy Seat. 

O Thou who hast removed 
Him whom the people loved— 

Thy Servant Rare— 
AVho gavest him strength and light 
To see and guard the right. 
Still grant Thy holy might 

To men of prayer, 



158 HASKEIvIv'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

Bless, still, our Nation's head- 
Successor of the dead— 

And keep his life; 
While armies cease their tread, 
And those who fought and bled 
Rest in their peaceful bed. 

Heal all our strife. 

Comfort each stricken one, 
O God, the Father, Son, 

And Holy Ghost; 
While in our hearts we own 
That here Thy love is known, 
And Thine the only throne 

Of which we boast. 




I.IKKNKSSKS OF LINCOLN. 



Prayer and Providence, 



Reported Sermons and Apropos 

Reminiscences hy a 

Renowned Preacher 

and the Press. 

Suggestive Way Marks of the World's Onward Move, 

For Example: 

Haskell's Last Prayer In U. S. Senate, 

May 7th, 1858. 



It was the clay of the three-fold bereavement of 
South Carolina. Preston S. Brooks, who assaulted 
Senator Sumner, and his uncle. Senator Butler, for 
whom he caned and nearly killed him, both from 
the Palmetto state, had recently died suddenly, and 
this morning Butler's colleague. Senator Evans, ex- 
pired without a minute's rational premonition. As 
Mr. Breckenridge, the Vice President, led the Chap- 
lain to his chair, he said to him: "These three sud- 
den afilictions of South Carolina are very solemn 
and suggestive." Hence the appropriateness of 
the following 

PRAYER. 

"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all 
generations." "In Thee we live and move and have 
our being," and "that God in whose hand our 
breath is we ought to glorify." Accept the homage 
of our sad and reverent hearts as we hear Thee 
say: "Be still and know that I am God!" With 
profound awe we listen to Thy voice thrice speak- 
ing to a Sister State of this Sacred Union, and hear 



l6o HASKEI.I.'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

now its smitten seats in both national assemblies 
speaking in admonition to all the American people. 
We ask Thy Holy Spirit to impress upon our hearts 
the meaning of this chastening Trovidence. Why, 
in this perturbed period of our country, should 
that one of the revered thirteen Colonies that rose 
hand in hand through the bloody revolution as the 
United States of America, be now the object of 
this three-fold Divine Visitation? Why should her 
three sons most distinguished by their particular 
deeds and official positions be stricken down as in 
one instant when the wondering eyes of all the 
world were conspicuously upon them? When 
clouds of evil omen are rising and distant thunders 
reverberate along the darkened sky, and patriots" 
hearts are failing for fear of the near future, O 
Lord, remove the alienation of feelings which were 
foreboded by the Father of his Country. Restrict 
or take away the causes of discord among us, and 
may the sympathy we feel this morning renew and 
strengthen the old, tender, proverbial affection that 
bound all the Sister States in one loving, virtuous 
and invincible Union which shall last forever. 
Sanctify our sorrowing solicitude to every Amer- 
ican citizen. Comfort them that mourn. Purify 
and preserve our country, through Christ our 
Saviour, and to God be glory forever. Amen. 



[See National Intelligencer, May ii, 1858 ] 

MR. HASKEI^Iv'S SERMON THE FOI.I.OWING SABBATH. 
TEXT — JEREMIAH X:7. 

" IVko would not fear Thee, O King of Nations!'" 

From this text the Reverend speaker spoke on 

the Government of God and the duty of all men 

to regard him. He said this interrogative mode 

of presenting truth to nations and individuals is so 



PRAYER AND PROVIDENCE. l6l 

direct and divinely effective that it seems sacri- 
legious to divide this question into positive propo- 
sitions; yet in order that men may define their spe- 
cial responsibilities, which the text makes them 
feel, it is necessary to state four facts which it im- 
plies: 

1. God has a Government of Supreme Author- 
ity. 

2. He executes that Government upon all Na- 
tions. 

3. He governs all Nations by applying person- 
ally His Laws to all men. 

4. Every man so related to the King of Na- 
tions should fear before Him. 

Under these positive statements the young 
preacher clearly portrayed the Excellence of God's 
Moral System, as the beginning, end and glory of 
all His works; the Purity and Perfection of the 
Divine Character as seen in His Dealings with Na- 
tions and men, in exerting upon them "His higher 
Laws" (which Senator Seward has so lately as- 
serted) and the fearful Personality with which 
God deals with Public Men now, as in the Bible 
times. 

The whole subject, so abounding in truths of 
theologic, national and personal interest, was sug- 
gested by that Solemn and Mysterious Providence 
which, on Friday morning of last week, repeated 
the bereavement of one of the Sister States of this 
Union, and 'changed the Halls of Legislation to 
Houses of Mourning.' An appropriate allusion was 
made to the three deceased statesmen of South 
Carolina (Preston S. Brooks, Andrew P. Butler and 
Josiah Evans), and to the Moral Lessons taught 
at once to the citizens of that State, to all the 
American people and the whole civil world for- 



l62 HASKEI^I^'S WASHINGTON SERMONS: 

ever, by these three sudden and solemn deaths, 
which seem so full of admonitory meaning. 



[Continued From National Intelligencer.] 

HASKEI^VS FAREWELI< SERMON. 

"At night the young pastor preached from 
Isaiah xxvi., 4: 

"This was intended to be Mr. Haskell's last dis- 
course before the people of his charge in Wash- 
ington City, and without alluding to the fact, his 
words foreshadowed his prospective departure 
with a deep-toned sympathy, which was mutually 
exhibited between speaker and hearers. He illus- 
trated how there is no limit of time, place or cir- 
cumstance where God's people should not repose 
in Him. The sermon ended. His labors among 
them had closed. He then read a carefully pre- 
pared resignation of his pastoral office in the 
Western Presbyterian Church, that he might ac- 
cept a 'unanimous call' to a larger parish and field 
of usefulness in Boston. The closing services were 
such as to attest most tenderly the divine injunc- 
tion of the text: 'Trust ye in the Lord forever, for 
in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' " 



FURTHER EDITORIAI, COMMENTS. 

"In parting with the Rev. T. N. Haskell from 
this field of labor in our city, we should impose on 
ourselves a needless restraint were we not to say 
the whole course of this young clergyman's minis- 
trations in Washington has been governed by an 
everpresent conscientiousness, a deep conviction of 
his duty to God and men, guided by the dictates of 
an all controlling desii-e to do good. In addition 
to his pulpit services and parochial duties, he has 
been Indefatigable and self-sacrificing in raising 



PRAYER AND PROVIDKNCE. I63 

funds to build his 'Holy and beautiful House' of 
worship, which he has done with the co-operation 
of his elder brother, Dr. Sunderland, in a manner 
which must entitle him to the lasting gratitude of 
his Church and of the growing community needing 
the accommodations which such a neat and com- 
modious temple of worship affords."— See "The 
National Intelligencer," May 11, 1858. 

RKV. DR. NOBIvE TO PRESIDENT GRANT. 

"Washington, December, 1872. 
"To President Grant: 

"I have known Professor Haskell many years. 
He came to this city from Union Theological Sem- 
inary, New York, in 1854, to take charge of the 
Presbyterian Church nearest the Executive Man- 
sion. His views on the subject of Slavery were in 
advance of mOiSt of his ministerial brethren here 
then, yet his ideas were so well defined, and the 
expression of them so ingenuous and clear, that 
his enemies, 'finding none accusation against him 
except concerning the law of his God,' charged 
him with being an 'Abolitionist.' This was in those 
days like the cry of 'mad dog!' Against this Mr. 
Haskell bore himself with much meekness and 
dignity, but it finally led him to accept a call from 
a larger church in Boston. 

"In the field of labor which his friends are now 
asking for him, as Minister to the Ottoman Em- 
pire, he would find a sphere for which his high 
culture, his large experience and his character as 
a man of pure life and Christian principle eminent- 
ly fit him. MASON NOBLE, D. D., 

Pastor Sixth Pres. Ch. and Navy Chaplain. 

[Note:— Vice-President Henry Wilson of Mass.. Senators Buck- 
ingham of Conn.. Logan of 111. and Corbett of Oregon, and Gen O. 
O. Howard of Washington City joined Dr. Noble in asking for Mr. 



l64 HASKEIvIy'S WASHINGTON SERMONS; 

Haskell's appointment as Minister to the Ottoman Empire; but the 
fata! sickness of his scholarly daughter, Florence Edwards, drove 
him, instead, to Colorado where he started, for her memorial, the 
First College in the Rocky Mountain Region, and had it named after 
his adopted State. Since then three Legislatures, Governors and the 
Supreme bench have asked for the same appointment, but without 
success, on account of the youth of the State and Senatorial antag- 
onisms to the Nation's Chief Magistrates. Those several Petitions 
may sometime be published in explanation of Professor Haskell's 
comparative indifference to elective offices.] 




ENSIGN BAGI.KV, 



Tb^ Heart of War, 

In '98 Ziiy^ '64. 



**Tbe Upiop ©borus 5wells Ag2iin" 
Ip our SiZir Jp^Ogled War with 5p2iin- 



Secretary Long and Professor Haskell's 

Letters and Lines about 

Ensign Bagley of North Carolina. 

Oft best of all are first to fall! 



The Following Correspondence will explain it- 
self and illustrate how "the better angels of our 
nature," that Lincoln spoke of in his first Inau- 
gural, "have touched the mjstic chords of memory" 
and hope of the whole American people "to swell 
again the chorus of the Union" and "rally round 
the flag" as a most sacred emblem. Nothing like 
it in history can equal the restored patriotism of 
the Southern people, as seen in our War to free 
Cuba. And it is worthy of special notice that the 
first hero to fall in that War was the noble youth. 
Ensign Worth Bagley, whose father was both a 
distinguished officer in "the Rebel Army" and a 
son of "the Patriots of the Revolution." The fol- 
lowing is taken from the young man's charming 
Memoir, Chapter xii., headed: 



1 66 HASKEI,I,'S WORDS OF CGNDOI^ENCE. 

"TRIBUTES FROM PUBLIC MEN OF OTHER STATES 
THAN NORTH CAROI^INA." 

"Hon. John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, 
wrote to the Ensign's Mother: 

"Washington, D. C, May 17, 1898. 

"My Dear Mrs. Bagley— I am in receipt to-day 
of a letter from Rev. T. N. Haslvcll (copy of which 
is herein enclosed) requesting that I forward to 
you the attached verses on the death of j'our son. 

"In forwarding you this, may I not be permit- 
ted also to offer you my heartfelt sympathy at your 
irreparable loss. Mr. Haskell's quotation of the 
letter from President Lincoln seems to me especi- 
ally appropriate. You, too, have "the thanks of the 
Republic and solemn pride in having laid so costly 
a sacrifice on the altar of Freedom." You also have 
the assurance that the whole Navy mourns with 
you in the loss of your son, who died at his post 
in the performance of a daring duty— one of the 
bravest of the brave. With great respect. Veiy 
sincerely yours, JOHN D. LONG." 

HASKEIvI^'S I.ETTER TO GOVERNOR I,ONG. 

"1G51 Emerson Avenue, 
"Denver, Colorado, May 12, 1898. 
"Dear Mr. Secretary Long— The news of En- 
sign Bagley's tragic death yesterday, off Cardenas, 
Cuba, with a sketch of his beautiful character and 
life and brave deeds— in the midst of which the 
enemy's shell, bursting on the Wiuslow, nearly 
beheaded him and killed also four other brave fel- 
lows at his side— has just come to my desk, and I 
could not refrain from impromptuiug the enclosed 
poem for his deeply afflicted Mother, Avhose ad- 
dress I cannot learn. On the back of the slip I 
have copied President Lincoln's pathetic letter to 
Widow Bixby of Boston. 



WIDOW BAGI^EY AND HER SON. 167 

"I wish, even in the midst of your mighty deeds 
and many duties now, you would see that the mes- 
sage is sent to that Jochebed, "Glorious Woman," 
as soon as may be. Worth Bagley's Mother de- 
serves well of all the world. 

"T. N. HASKELL." 

SECRETARY I^ONG'S REPI.Y. 

"Washington, May 17, 1898. 
"Rev. T. N. Haskell, Denver, Colorado: 

"Dear Sir— I am in receipt of your letter of the 
12th instant, inclosing verses on the death of En- 
sign Bagley. I have been very glad to forward 
the inclosure to his Mother, together with a copy 
of your letter to me. Very respectfully, 

"JOHN D. LONG." 

HASKELI^'S I.ETTER TO MRS. BAGT^EY. 

"Very Dear Madam— I have just read the ac- 
count of your noble son, Worth Bagley's, life and 
death, and have written, without review, the en- 
closed lines thereon. With deep sympathy I com- 
mend you to God, our Saviour, and copy for your 
comfort the accompanying condolent letter of Pres- 
ident Lincoln to Widow Bixby of Boston, whose 
sons fell in battle. Your Patriotic Christian Broth- 
er, T. N. HASKELL." 

ENSIGN BAGI.EY AND HIS BOYS. 

(An Impromptu by T. N. Haskell, L. H. D.) 

When Israel's firstlings of the flock 

(Upon Jehovah's altar laid) 
Besprinkled blood upon the rock 

On which the offering was made; 
When Ellsworth fell, like holocausts. 

And in the White House "lay in state," 
Mankind conceived how much it costs 

Humanity to liberate, 



l68 HASKEIvIy'S WORDS OF CONDOI^ENCE: 

When Ensign Bagley fought and fell, 

As the first offering of this land, 
The victim of that vicious shell 

Exploding 'mong his valiant band — 
O God! how great the human gift, 

A Widow's Son! so wise and pure, 
The Spanish tyranny to lift 

And Cuba's liberty secure! 

(And must men fight, and must men fall, 
And give their lives for greater good? 

The few to fall for good of all, 
And broaden out our brotherhood? 

This problem— like God's Providence- 
Seems awe-inspiring whene'er seen, 

And we must have long ages hence 
To learn how much its lessons mean.) 

O, Widow Bagley! Could you see 

Your Son's proud name— above all praise- 
Emblazoned, as 'twill surely be- 
Down to his country's latest daj^s, 
You would thank God for such a Son, 

And that his death in such a scene. 
Doth decorate all he hath done 
And show what Martyrdom doth mean! 

The Braves that fell at Bagley's side, 

Be blazoned, too, in types of blood. 
Proclaimed henceforth "Their Country's Pride, 

To make all boys both brave and good! 
Their memory— and of the "Maine"— 

Like resurrection from the dead, 
Shall give the world their lives again, 

Where'er their names are known or read. 



WIDOW BIXBY AND HER FIVE SONS. 1 69 

I,INC0I.N'S CONDOI.ENT I.ETTER. 

Washington, Nov. 21, 64 
To Widow Bixby of Boston. 

"Dear Madam— I have been shown in the liU^s 
of the AVar Department a statement of the Adju- 
tant General of Massachusetts, that you are the 
mother of live sons who have died gloriously on 
the field of battle! I feel how weak and fruitless 
must be any word of mine, which should attempt 
to beguile you from the grief of a loss so over- 
whelming; but I cannot refrain from tendering to 
you the consolation that may be found in the 
thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray 
that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish 
of your bereavement, and leave you only the cher- 
ished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn 
pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a 
sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. Yours very 
sincerely and respectfully, 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN." 



HASKELL'S REPLY 



TO 



Redpath's Eulogy 



OF 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



The Chief of the pi'o^IaVEi'^ Hehellion. 



A REPLY TO JAMES REDPATH S EULOGY OF 
JEFFERSON DAVIS.* 



The distinguished French savant, Theodore Jouf- 
froy, said: "The history of Philosophy presents a 
singular spectacle; a certain number of problems are 
reproduced at every epoch; each of these problems 
suggests a certain number of solutions, always the 
same; philosophers are divided; discussion is set on 
foot; every position is attacked and defended, with 
equal appearance of truth; humanity listens in 
silence, adopts the opinion of no one, but preserves its 
own — which is that which is called Common Sense.''^ 
Now, strange as it may seem, this long definition of 
the average and ultimate opinion of humanity is as 
applicable to history as it is to philosophy; for the 
History of Philosophy and the Philosophy of History 
present substantially the same "singular spectacle," 
till even biography has to succumb to "the Silent 
Common Sense of Mankind." There may be multi- 
plied efforts to falsify historical facts, and ages, even, 
may suffer in silence under false systems of philoso 
phy, but eventually the right and true will prevail. 
This applies even to the most extravagant eulogies of 
historic character, to some of which now, Bryant's 
often-quoted poetical apothegm is more than ever 
appropriate: 

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; 

The eternal years of God. are hers, 
While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 

And dies among his worshipers. 

Although we need not fear for the final triumph 
of the truth, some efforts to falsify history are in their 

* For Eulogy and Answer, see The Cominonivealth for Febru- 
ary and March, 1890. 



4: JEFFEftsON DAVIS, 

immediate effects upon society so hurtful, and some 
eulogies are so exaggerated, and injurious because so 
unjust to great truths and issues, that the common 
sense of humanity cannot afford to keep silent. Such 
I conceive to be some of the eulogiums pronounced 
upon the distinguished Secessionists, and inscribed 
upon their monuments. The most remarkable among 
these appears James Redpath's apology for Jefferson 
Davis, the great leader of the "American Rebellion" 
against the legitimate election of Abraham Lincoln, 
and which eulogy is entitled: "Neither Traitor nor 
Rebel." 

This, it seems to me, is a needless affront now to 
National Sentiment, an almost audacious demand, 
amidst even funereal obsequies, for public debate of 
what some have long since supposed to be dead 
issues; and that challenge, too, when all sensitive 
men would rather mingle tears with them that mourn 
than raise to life again the old bloody contest from the 
new tomb of its most notable leader. No man could 
feel more keenly than I do the delicacy and difficulty 
of this unseemly contest, and the discomfort incident 
to such a discussion. I knew Jefferson Davis well, and 
esteemed highly his gentlemanly bearing and every 
one of his distinguishing talents and virtues, and his 
almost peerless opportunities to serve and honor his 
united, happy and glorious Country! I knew and 
admired some of his near kindred, with whom I daily 
met before our Heavenly Father's throne and around 
the table of his bounty. Many of my warmest friends 
were among this "great Statesman's" followers and 
comrades; and I would not needlessly wound any 
man, woman or child among his many worshipers, 
not even the enraptured admirer and lover whose 
surpassing attachments and pathos I am as a patriot 
instinctively answering. But there have been conse- 
quent upon Mr. Davis' political conduct more than a 
hundred million mourners, and many lands and ages 
must have suffered severely, if he had succeeded in 
nationalizing Slavery or in severing the Union. All 
these issues are forcibly brought anew before the 
American people now by his many — and often unpatri- 
otic — eulogiums. In answering the one now before us, 
in a manner suited to the general subject and to the 
interests of humanity that "listens in silence," we need 



THE CHIEF OF THE REBELLION. O 

first to ask: Who the apologist is; why he speaks as 
Mr. Davis' mouthpiece, and what is the import of the 
testimony that he brings us? We need not go 
beyond his own words for much of the answers to 
these problems, and the rest is easily found on record 
and ready. 

Mr. Redpath himself tells us he is the biographer 
of John Brown, the (assistant) mttobiographer of 
Jefferson Davis, and the ardent lover of them both. 
He begins his "Life of John Brown" by saying in its 
first sentence: "I loved and revered the noble old 
man, and had perfect confidence in his plan of eman- 
cipation — I think that John Brown did right in in- 
vading Virginia and attempting to liberate her 
slaves." 

In the midst of his book Mr. Redpath shows 
how Brown had run off a great many bondmen from 
Missouri, and hoped by giving leadership and simple 
weapons of self-defense to the slaves of Virginia, he 
might induce multitudes of them also to escape, 
without a general insurrection, or the shedding of 
much blood. He also tells how Brown captured the 
National Arsenal at Harper's Perry, was attacked by 
Federal troops, his son killed at his side, and his 
men, unbidden, fired three shots, and as many assail- 
ants fell; how Brown was then pinned to the earth by 
bayonets, and, when down, was smitten in his face 
with the sword; then weak and wounded was cast 
into prison, tried upon his couch in open court, con- 
demned and hanged under the following verdict: 
"Guilty of treason^ conspiring and advising with 
slaves and others to rebel, and murder in the first 
degree." 

The memoir concludes with a quotation from a 
Southern correspondent, saying: "The students in 
the medical college at Winchester had skinned the 
body of one of Brown's sons, separated the nervous, 
muscular and venous system, dried and varnished 
them, and had the whole hung up as a nice anatomi- 
cal illustration. Some of the students wanted the 
skin ptuffed, others wished it made into game- 
pouches." "Such," says Redpath, "such is the spirit 
of Southern Slavery!" 

Now, a little later, after the lapse of only thirty 
years, after less than a third of a century, during 



6 JEFFl^RSON DAVIS, 

which both slavery and rebellion have been blotted 
out with the best blood of near half a million of the 
bravest soldiers ever born of educated and saintly 
women, and the greatest events and issues of the civil 
world have been enacted and settled, this same James 
Redpath becomes the assistant historian, and auto- 
biographer, even, of Jefferson Davis, the distin- 
guished champion of slavery and instigator and leader 
of the "Great War of the Rebellion." This associa- 
tion of these two men, is one of rare and interesting 
significance, suggesting the greatness of the change 
in public opinion and in their own predilections. 
'They seem to come instinctively together from the 
extremes of the country and of political convictions 
to become mutual admirers, if not actual lovers, at 
eight. Of all the literary names laid before Mr. Davis, 
none was so attractive to him as that of James Red- 
path. He sent for him as preferred above all others, 
South or North, an invitation so cordial it was indeed 
irresistable, saying: "The sooner you come and the 
longer you stay the better will it please ?(s." The 
Vi^hole household seem united in this hearty invita- 
tion, and extended to their guest the full, proverbial 
and elegant "Southern hospitality." 

Mr. Redpath, therefore, came to Beauvoir, and 
was soon quite at home with the great secessionist, 
and as happy as he was welcome. He "remained 
nearly the entire summer, being in Mr. Davis' com- 
pany all that time from six to ten hours daily." In 
order to assist him with the least friction and loss of 
time, it became necessary that he should study the 
State Rights doctrines. Mr. Davis therefore gave 
him such of his writings on that topic as embodied 
his personal views, and held long conversations with 
him, till, Redpath says: "I felt competent to state 
the Southern theory without any doubt as to the cor- 
rectness of my understanding of it. During the long 
period we were together we talked of every important 
event in his long eventful life and discussed almost 
every issue between the North and South." From 
first to last, evidently, they were very friendly and 
familiar. Says Redpath: "Before I had been with 
Mr. Davis three days, every preconceived idea of him 
utterly and forever disappeared. I never saw an old 
man whose face bore more emphatic e7idences of a 



THE CHIEF OF THE REBELLION. / 

gentle, refined and benignant nature. He seems to 
me the ideal embodiment of sweetness and light. I 
do not like him — I love him! And when I realized 
that he was on his death-bed, I found no sleep till 
my pillow was wet with tears — for my love for the 
good and great old man made me anxious to know 
more of his career, as well as to enjoy more the 
society of his charming household at Beauvoir." 

Now let me ask, before proceeding to analyze his 
eulogium. Could Jefferson Davis possibly have selected 
and prepared a more suitable and competent apolo- 
gist, or a more impassioned and eloquent eulogist, 
than James Redpath? Was there ever, since the days 
of Jonathan and David, such mutual admiration and 
love as existed between these two men? They seem 
so close, indeed, that either might have written the 
other's mt^obiography. It must be very pleasing to 
the Southern secessionists and planters, and interest- 
ing to all, to see such a union of souls established 
between the great proslavery leader and the lover of 
John Brown — whose "body lies mouldering in the 
grave, while his soul goes marching on, o'er the land 
of the free and the home of the brave!" Such facts 
and feelings are very suggestive, and such burdened 
yet beautiful language from such personages can- 
not possibly be an appeal, or bid, for popular appro- 
bation from any part or section of the literary public. 

Yet these pleasing phenomena are not sufficiently 
interesting and surprising, even in the midst of gen- 
eral and tender sympathetic feeling, to justify for- 
getting or falsifying the most essential facts of 
American history. Nor have the leaders of the Rebel- 
lion generally, nor Messrs. Davis and Redpath in 
particular, been willing they should be forgotten; 
though we must think they at least greatly misinter- 
preted them and mean permanently to change the 
public mind, if it were possible, and fill it again with 
the old political errors that have been so dangerous 
and expensive. It seems as if it were as it was often 
before the war — polilitcal heresies are trumped up 
and harped about, till the chief agitators are those 
arguing most against agitation. Mr. Redpath says: 
"It is time to drop, and drop forever, the old war cant 
about Rebellion and Treason," and yet he makes 
them the theme of his eulogium; and the testimony 



8 JEF^RSON DAVIS, 

he brincrs before us upon them is professedly also 
that of his patron. "I will present," he says, "only 
such views as Mr. Davis himself maintained; the 
language only is mine; the statements and arguments 
are his." He then gives two common sensible defini- 
tions of Treason and Rebellion: "A Traitor is one 
who violates his allegiance and betrays his country. 
A Rebel is one who revolts from the country to which 
he owes allegiance." He then claims that our citi- 
zens owe allegiance not to the United Country but to 
their several States. He, however, adds: "If the 
fathers intentionally created a Nation, then it follows 
without dispute that the Confederates were both 
'Rebels and Traitors,' for they certainly did fail in 
their allegiance to the Federal Government for four 
years, and they certainly were Rebels against its 
authority." From these premises, what must be 
their Commander-in-Chief? The Fathers did, inten- 
tio7ially, found an "Independent Nation," one that 
was BO acknowledged all over the world. They 
planned, toiled, fought and prayed for this, and God 
so heard their prayers and helped them, that Wash- 
ington said: "Every step by which the people of the 
United States have advanced to the character of an 
Independent Nation, seems to have been distin- 
'guished by some token of Providential agency." 
And the grateful people have also prayerfully sung: 

"O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand, 
Between their loved homes and War's desolation; 

Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land, 
Praise the power that hath made and jireserved us a Nation /" 

Our history and literature and diplomacy have 
countless assertions of that sort. The States do not 
have them. Diplomacy, therefore, cannot deal with 
the States, but with the Nation. Washington on 
this matter said: "It will be worthy of us as a 
free, enlightened, and, at no distant day, a great. 
Nation, to give to mankind the too novel example of 
a people always guided by an exalted justice and 
benevolence." "The name of Americans, which 
belongs to you in your National capacity, must 
always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than 
any appellation derived from local discriminations." 

He was utterly averse to every idea of State Sov- 
ereignty and Secession. "It is of infinite moment" 



th:^ chief of the rebellion. 9 

(he says in hte last appeal to the American people) 
"that you should properly estimate the immense value 
of your National Union to your collective and indi- 
vidual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, 
habitual and immovable attachment to it; accustom- 
ing yourself to think and speak of it as the palladium 
of your political safety and prosperity; watching for 
its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenanc- 
ing whatever may suggest a suspicion that it can in 
any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning 
upon every attempt to alienate any portion of our 
Country from the rest." 

Now Redpath says: "Mr. Davis maintained that 
the vindication of the South (in the late war of 
secession) rested on these two consideratiens — The 
rightful power to secede; and the causes that justi- 
fied the exercise of that power." As to the first of 
these, Mr. Madison, "The Father of the Constitution," 
as he is called, wrote to Alexander Hamilton that 
New York could not ratify the Constitution condition- 
ally, reserving the right to withdraw in case a cer- 
tain amendment should not be made; for, said he: 
"The Constitution requires an adoption in toto 
and forever y In another letter he wrote: "The 
idea of reserving a right to withdraw was started in 
Richmond, but was abandoned as worse than a rejec- 
tion" — this in part because it militated against "the 
perpetuity of the Union" already plighted by all the 
States and thoroughly established. The States 
emerged from the Revolutionary War as a consoli- 
dated Nation. The first of their Articles of Confed- 
eration named that Nation "The United States of 
America." The last one said: "Whereas, it hath 
pleased the Great Governor of the world to incline 
the hearts of the Legislatures we represent to 
approve and authorize us to ratify the said Articles 
of perpetual Union, know ye that we, the undersigned 
delegates, do fully and entirely ratify the said Arti- 
cles of 2Jerpetual Union, and we plight tJie faitji of 
our constituents that the Union shall be 2^erpetual !" 
This was done in 1778. In 1787 the Constitution was 
ado]jted on the basis of that imperfect but enduring 
compact. It declares "We the people of the United 
States, in order to form a more perfect Union, estab- 
lish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for 



10 jef:^erson da vis, 

the common defense, promote the general welfare and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution 
OF THE United States op America." 

Now in the face of these organic facts, need I take 
the time of intelligent people to discuss the absurd 
proposition that a part is greater than the whole; the 
State superior to the Nation, the county to the State, 
the town to the county, and the precinct supreme 
over all, having a right to secede at will? In 1860 
Mayor Wood, of New York, reasoning so, urged that 
city to secede and imitate South Carolina; but the 
people saw that instead of becoming "a free city" it 
would emerge from freedom into bondage to Europe, 
or become simply an object of pity and plunder. 
Edmund Randolph fitly represented the absurdity of 
the State Sovereignty doctrine when he suggested 
how silly it would seem for the General Government to 
say: "May it please your high mightinesses of Vir- 
ginia to comply with your Federal duties ! We implore, 
we beg your obedience !" Then, on the other hand, he 
showed the Virginia Convention that ratified the 
Constitution the true dignity of patriotism. "I 
have labored," said he, "for the continuance of this 
Union, as the rock of our safety. I believe as surely 
as there is a God in Heaven, our political happiness 
and existence depend upon the Union op the States. 
The American spirit ought to be mixed with 
National pride — pride to see the Union magnificently 
triumph! Let no future historian inform posterity 
that we wanted wisdom and virtue to concur in the 
establishment of an efficient Government. The Na- 
tional Government o?;(//ii to be i'ully vested with pioiver 
to preserve the Union, protect the interest of the 
United States and defend them from external inva- 
sions and internal insiu^rection.^^ He believed with 
Madison and Washington, that they were making a 
great and mighty Nation, and that the people and 
the States alike, who adopted the Constitution, 
"adopted it in toto and forever," with its inherent 
powers of amendment and of execution, and that 
they surrendered their own sovereignty to the Nation 
to that extent, giving it a self-perpetuating existence 
and power. The speech of Andrew Johnson, of Ten- 
nessee, January, 1861, to that effect, and claiming 



THE CHIEF OF THE REBELLION. 11 

that "Secession is Treason and nothing but Treason" 
is forever unanswerable. Therefore "the rightful 
power of the States to withdraw from the Union of 
1787 (claimed by Davis) has 7iot been conceded by 
successive generations." Nor have "the causes which 
led to the act been admitted to be an all-sufficient 
justification." Far from it. 

"Mr. Davis submitted as a justification of the with- 
drawal of the Southern States in 18G1 : (1) The destruc- 
tion of the balance of power which existed when the 
Constitution was adopted. (2) Subsequent legislation 
for sectional advantages rather than the general 
welfare. (3) Persistent violation of obligations which 
the States had assumed in the formation of the com- 
pact of Union, and (4) Incessant hostility culminat- 
ing in Invasion, showing the Union was no longer 
one of the heart." In answering in their order 
these assertions, we ask, First: "The balance of 
power" was what? and between what 9 The equi- 
poise sought by the founders of the Government 
W'as the equal distribution of wholesome National 
authority throughout the body politic, for its benefit 
in all its parts. The balance of power to which 
Mr. Davis refers was between slavery and free- 
dom, the Slave States and Free States; the rivalry 
between the South and North, against which Wash- 
ington warned the whole country in most eloquent 
words. The South began this contest before the 
Constitution was formed, and warmly kept it up till 
the end of the late war. All the causes of complaint 
lie justly against the South. To secure equal repre- 
sentation in Congress, the Slave States demanded in 
the Constitution the right to import slaves and cast 
three votes for every five slaves they might import or 
raise, counted with true "Southern generosity." 
This of course was even supreme "legislation for sec- 
tional advantages" to begin with, but it was on Davis' 
side. By this excess of power the Slave holder 
secured sixty years of the Presidency to the Free 
States' twenty; eighteen judges of the Supreme Court 
to the North's eleven; twenty-four Southern Presi- 
dents (pro tem) of the Senate to ten; twenty-three 
Speakers of the House from the South to twelve from 
the North; fourteen to five Attorney Generals; eighty- 
six to fifty-four Foreign Ministers; while the Comp- 



12 JEPPEESON DAVIS, 

trollers, Auditors and Chief Clerks, etc., were largely 
from the South; as were also the officers of the Army 
and Navy, with soldiers and sailors mostly from the 
Free States. The "legislation for sectional advan- 
tages" was so generally favorable to the South, that 
Hon. Alexander H. Stevens exclaimed in the Georgia 
Convention, January, 1861, "The Government at 
Washington has always been true to Southern inter- 
ests!" and asked: "What Southern right has the 
North assailed? What interest of the South has 
been invaded? What justice has been denied? 
Can anyone to-day name one act of wrong by 
the Government at Washington of which the South 
has a right to complain? I challenge the answer!" — 
"Then, leaving out of view the countless millions of 
dollars you must expend in a war with the North, 
with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers 
slain in battle and offered up as sacrifices to your 
ambition— I ask for what would you secede? Is it to 
overthrow this American Government — that has done 
you no wrong — which was established by our com- 
mon ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat 
and blood, and founded on the broad principles of 
Right, Justice and Humanity? As I have often said 
before, it is the freest Government, the most equal in 
its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most 
lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its 
principles to elevate the race of man, that the sun 
ever shone upon. For you to attempt the overthrow 
of such a Government as this, is the height of mad- 
ness, folly and wickedness, to which I can neither 
lend my sanction nor my vote!" 

Such was the patriotic feeling then of a majority 
in the South. The Rcdeirjh (N. C.) Banner, said: 
"The big heart of the people is still in the Union ! Less 
than a hundred thousand* politicians are endeav- 
oring to destroy the liberties and to usurp the rights 
of more than thirty millions of people. If the people 
do not prevent this, they deserve the horrors of the 
Civil War which will ensue; they deserve the despot- 

* Out of these 100,000 politicians only forty-two came to- 
gether February 4, '61, at Montgomery, Alabama, assuming to 
represent the seven States, and adopted the new Constitution, 
elected Jefferson Davis, its deviser, for President, and put the 
new Government at once in running order. 



THE CHIEF OP THE REBELLION. 13 

ism under which they will be brought, and the hard 
fate which will be their lot." But the original case 
was far worse than this. The French Revolution, 
Warville tells us, w^as carried by not more than 
twenty men: The Southern Rebellion was organized 
by ten from seven States, met in secret conclave at 
Washington, on Saturday evening, January 5, 1861 
— the same week of Stevens' and Johnson's great 
speeches against Secession. Those ten Senators, still 
holding seats under allegiance to the United States, 
agreed upon the following plan (published in 
National Intelligencer, by some informer, the follow- 
ing week, but not generally believed): "Assume as 
Senators, as far as possible, the political powers of 
your several States, devising immediate measures to 
forestall regular elections by the people; inaugurate 
at once a Provisional Government, by the following 
means: Urge by mail and telegraph the several Cot- 
ton State Conventions, now and soon to be in session, 
to refer no acts for ratification to their constituents, 
as contemplated in their appointment, but pass as 
near as possible, one and the same Acts of Secession, 
and another calling a joint convention of all the 
States seceding, ostensibly to devise measures suited 
to their common welfare, but really to assume 
the immediate functions of the Provisional Govern- 
ment. In defense of this scheme urge the several 
Governors (or if necessary irresponsible men) to take 
possession of the United States Forts and Arsenals, 
Mints and Custom Houses, in the name of their 
respective States, till the Provisional Government 
may safely assume them to itself, and even the Post 
and Telegraph offices, allowing the United States to 
carry still the expensive Southern mails; urge the 
Legislatures of Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Vir- 
ginia into unanticipated acts, or quasi resolutions, of 
Secession, or at least to call conventions which may 
BO resolve; make sure of the sympathy of Army 
officers by personal influences, such as will best 
secure the end; retain seats in the United States Sen- 
ate, unless positively recalled, till at least the fifteenth 
day of March, in order to tie President Buchanan's 
hands, prevent enabling legislation, and keep the 
North and National Government in doubt; and if the 
way be clear and exigencies demand, instigate and 



14 JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

aid daring men in Baltimore to kidnap (kill?) the 
incoming President in transit of Maryland." 

This plan was adopted without a dissenting vote 
and its perjured author was put at the head of its 
executive committee to begin at once to carry it out. 
At his instance United States Senator Yulee wrote 
on the Sabbath, but dated on Monday, the following 
letter to a Florida Secessionist: 

Washington, January 7, 1861. 
My Dear Sir— On the other side is a copy of resolutions 
adopted at a consultation of Senators from the Seceding States, 
in which Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Miss- 
issippi and Florida were present. The idea of the meeting was, 
that the States should go out at once, and provide for the early 
organization of a Confederate Government, not later than the 
fifteenth of February. This time is allowed to enable Louisi- 
ana and Texas to participate. It seemed to be the opinion, if 
•we left here, force, loan, and volunteer bills might be passed, 
which would put Mr. Lincoln in immediate condition for hos- 
tilities; whereas, by remaining in our places till the fourth of 
March, it is thought we can keep Mr. Buchanan's hands tied, 
and disable the Republicans from effecting any legislation which 
will strengthen the hands of the incoming administration. In 
haste. Yours truly, D. L. Yulee. 

Were ever conspiracy, treason, rebellion and per- 
jury more foul? It were a sin to suggest that Wash- 
ington or Lincoln or Lee could ever have joined in 
such conspiracies. But here the real cause of this 
Treason and Rebellion comes conspicuously into 
view. Redpath savs: "The South did not fight for 
Slavery?" What did they fight for? For State 
Rights? Absurd! The doctrine of State Rights 
would have disintegrated the Rebel Confederacy 
itself in the midst of the war, if its President, Davis, 
had indulged the idea. No; the contest was for 
Slavery all the way from the beginning! Said 
Stevens: "When we of the South demanded the 
Slave trade, did the North not yield it for twenty 
years? When we asked a three-fifths representa- 
tion in Congress for our Slaves, was it not granted? 
When we demanded the return of fugitives, was it 
not incorporated in the Constitution and made effec- 
tive by the Fugitive Slave Law? When we asked 
that more territory should be added that we might 
spread the institution of Slavery, have they not 
yielded to our demands and given us Louisiana, 
Florida and Texas?" Yes; all these successive wars 
of words in the Legislative Halls of the Nation were 



THE CHIEF OP THE REBELLION. 15 

waged over Slavery and won entirely in its behalf. 
The brutal assault upon Senator Sumner was for 
words spoken in debate against the extension of 
Slavery. The sectional animosity was on account of 
Slavery only. Senator Iverson, of Georgia, said: 
"Slavery must be maintained — in the Union, if possi- 
ble; out of it if necessary; peaceably if we may; 
forcibly if we must." A little later he said: "There 
is but one path of safety to the South, but one mode 
of preserving Slavery, and that is a Confederacy of 
Slave States alone. The fifteen Slave States would 
present to the world the most free, prosperous and 
happy nation on the face of the earth." 

Hon. L. W. Spratt, of South Carolina, said before 
the Montgomery Congress: "The contest is not 
between the North and the South as geographical 
sections, nor between the people of the North and the 
people of the South, for our relations have been 
pleasant, and on neutral grounds there is nothing to 
estrange us; but the real contest lies between the 
two form.s of society. The one is bound together by 
the two great social relations of husband and wife, 
parent and child; the other by the three relations of 
husband and wife, parent and child, and master and 
slave. The one embodies the principle that equality 
is the right of man; the other that it is the right of 
equals only. The South is now engaged in the for- 
mation of a free Slave* Republic." 

The Confederate Constitution also said: "No law 
denying or impairing the right of property in Slaves 
shall ever be passed. In all Territory actual or 
acquired, the institution of Negro Slavery, as it now 
exists in the Confederate States, shall be protected 
by Congress and the Territorial Government." The 
vice-President of the Confederacy said: "The new 
Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating 
questions relating to Slavery which was the imme- 
diate cause of the late ruptu re." He also said that slav- 
ery is "the chief corner stone" of their new free Repub- 
lic. This was understood both at home and abroad. 
Professor Cairnes, then the distinguished economist 
in Dublin University, wrote in 1863: "While the 
North has arisen to uphold the Union in its integrity, 
Slavery is yet the true cause of the war, and the 
real significance of the war is its relation to slavery." 



16 JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

Lord Palmerston said to Mr. Mason: "England could 
not recognize the Southern Confederacy because they 
were fighting to found a Slave Empire, which was 
obnoxious to the sentiments of Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment," and the Confederate Ambassadors confessed 
that fact was fatal everywhere to their recognition. 
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation put that issue 
still more clearly, and in his last inaugural he said: 
"All kneto that the Slave interest was somehow the 
cause of the War. To strengthen, perpetuate and 
extend that interest the insurgents would rend the 
Union by War." And then he utters that sublime 
passage — which may have suggested to Mr. Davis the 
picture from his former plantation scenes when he 
said to Redpath: "The power that holds the whip 
by the handle never does recognize the need of the 
groans and kicks that come from the body that 
stands at the other end." Mr. Lincoln's solemn 
words were: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we 
pray that the mighty scourge of war may speedily 
pass away; yet if God wills that it continue until all 
the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until 
every drop of blood draum ivith the lash shall be paid 
by another drawn with the sword, as was said three 
thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the 
judgments of the Lord are righteous altogether." 

Mr. Redpath says Mr. Davis; the invader of Penn- 
sylvania, where Meade lost 23,186 and Lee 31,621 
valiant men, the flower of the Nation, gave the inva- 
sion of Virginia by John Brown in which five were 
killed, as one cause of secession ! Surely that was a 
very significant event — but does not Mr. Davis over-do 
the matter a little by that allusion at this late day! 
That event was at most a mere omen. 

He ends with the complaint that there was "a 
want of hearty reverence for the Constitution and 
the Union." Yes, that was so, sadly so! But as in 
all other complaints, the wrong was on the wrong 
side. I remember Preston S. Brooks, for his assault 
upon Senator Sumner, had a Southern reception at 
which he said: "I tell you, fellow citizens, from the 
bottom of my heart, the only way to meet the issue 
upon us is, just tear the Constitution of the United 
States, trample it under foot, and form a Southern 



THE CHIEF OF THE REBELLION. 17 

Confederacy, every State of which shall be a slaver 
holding State." And his colleague, Mr. Keitt, who 
in his eulogy of Brooks said, "Heaven never opened 
to receive a purer spirit," exclaimed to his constitu- 
ents: "Take your destiny in your own hands and 
shatter this accursed Union. Carolina could do it 
alone; if not, she could at least throw her arms 
around the pillars of the Constitution and involve 
all the States in a common ruin!" It is said "this 
was greatly applauded." But Redpath declaies: "I 
never met any public man who revered the Constitu- 
tion as Jefferson Davis revered it." I never did either. 
Why, I have here Davis' own published opinion, also, 
"that he and his secession army were fighting for the 
Constitution and Lincoln and his hordes were warring 
against it." "Such knowledge is too wonderful for 
me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it;" I must 
simply submit it to the Common Sense of Mankind! 

Finally, the eulogist ends by saying, "for the 
benefit" of foreign lands and guests: "There are two 
Jefferson Davises in American history. One is a con- 
spirator, a rebel, a traitor, and the fiend of Anderson- 
ville — lie is a myth evolved from the hell-smoke of 
cruel war — as purely imaginary a personage as 
Mephistopheles or the Hebrew devil. The other was 
a statesman with clean hands and a pure heart, who 
served his people faithfully from budding manhood 
to hoary age, without a thought of self, with unbend- 
ing integrity, and to the best of his great ability; he 
was a man of whom all his countrymen, who knew 
him personally, are proud." 

Here "humanity listens in silence" to learn how 
these two contrasted characters came into American 
history; and Common Sense answers: They are the 
embodiment of real facts and deeds, as seen by both 
his foes and followers. Look first at the former per- 
sonage in the light of historic facts and see whether 
he be wholly imaginary: He is called a Conspirator, 
Rebel, Traitor, and responsible for the fiendish treat- 
ment of the Federal troops who were made his pris- 
oners of war. A Conspirator is one who conspires or 
engages with others in plotting treason against their 
government. The ten Senators who sat by day 
under oath in the Councils of the Nation, and by 
night planned the Rebel Confederacy within the 



18 JEFFERSON DAVIS, 

boundary of the United States, were Conspirators, 
or there never were men guilty of conspiring to com- 
mit treason. The chosen leader, acting freely and 
from choice, was the Chief of Conspirators. The 
United States Senator who advised Secretary Floyd, 
his successor, to send South the munitions of war in 
the North, Secretary Cobb to send the subtreasury 
and Secretary Thompson to telegraph that the Star 
of the West was bearing food to our beleaguered gar- 
rison in Forts Moultrie and Sumpter, so that their 
supplies might be fired on and cut off — that Senator 
and those Secretaries were all perjured Conspirators, 
Traitors and Rebels, or there never were Rebels, 
Traitors nor Conspirators — they are indeed in Ameri- 
can history as such, and as such they v/ill remain 
there forever! I do not say this of all those who 
enlisted in the l^ebel Army, after they supposed the 
Rebel Confederacy was really a new Nation that 
urged on them a claim for their allegiance, but those 
above named, of whom Jeffe'-son Davis was Chief, 
were not imaginary, but actual, treacherous, rebel- 
lious Conspirators- They originated and urged for- 
ward what Lincoln afterwards pathetically called "a 
Needless and cruel Rebellion," and they did it 
expecting great blood-shed, but hoped it would be in 
the North. Ex-President Pierce had written to Mr. 
Davis (January 6, 1860): "My Dear Friend: I 
have never believed the disruption of the Union can 
occur without blood; but if the dire calamity must 
come, the fighting will not be along Mason and 
Dixon's line merely; it will be within our own bor- 
ders and in our own streets.'^ The next year, how- 
ever. President Buchanan said (see B's Administra- 
tion p. 98): "The first shot fired at Moultrie and 
Sumpter will arouse the indignant spirit of the North 
and unite the people as one man to support a war 
rendered inevitable by such an act of Rebellion." 
They anticipated this; they conspired against the 
Government; they betrayed their country both at 
home and abroad, and they deliberately brought on 
and waged with desperate energy what history has 
called and will so name forever — "The Great ^A/■ar of 
the Rebellion." During that war they destroyed in 
one battle fifty-four thousand and eight hundred of 
their own brothers, and captured in all one hundred 



THE CHIEF OF THE REBELLION. 19 

and eighty thousand patriot soldiers and put them 
in pens and gave them food unfit for cattle. The 
stockade at Andersonville, Georgia, stands as a type 
of them all — and I will not say that the Jefferson 
Davis who was there, once at least, is "the fiend of 
Andersonville now in American History;" but I will 
call on an excellent Christian neighbor w4to was there, 
to be duly sworn and under oath tell you what he 
saw there and suffered. 

THE AFFIDAVIT OF STEPHEN HOPKINS' DESCENDANT: 

My name is James H. Hopkins. I was born in Hillsborough, 
Highland County, Ohio ; am a member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, and reside with my family at No. 2041 LaFayette 
Avenue, Denver, Colorado; am by trade a brick mason and 
builder. My father, John VV. Hopkins, was Second Lieutenant 
in the same regiment in the Mexican War with Major Winder, 
under command of Colonel Jefferson Davis, and they were 
warm friends. (The Ohio and Mississippi boys and Winder's 
Artillery fought together.) My grandfather, Shelby Hopkins 
served under General Winfield Scott in the War of 1812-15; 
and his father was Stephen Hopkins, Chief Justice of Rhode 
Island and signer of the Declaration of Independence. I enlisted 
as a volunteer in the Forty-eighth Regiment, Ohio Infantry, in 
the Federal Army; was in thirty battles, and was made prisoner 
at Chikam auga, was taken to the Rebel prison at Florence, 
Alabama, thence to Andersonville, Georgia, and detained there 
eleven months, in all nineteen months and four days. There 
was an average of twenty-seven thousand prisoners on an area 
of fourteen acres, and our privations and sufferings surpassed 
the power of words to describe. Our food some days, with no 
fire, was corn meal, cob and all; others a stalk of sugar cane, and 
on others a little black bean, etc., many days nothing. In a 
region of great fertility and a time of abundant harvests culti- 
vated by slaves, we were fed upon rations so unpalatable and 
scanty that thirteen thousand nine hundred and twelve patriot 
oldiers died in eleven months— apparently starved to death by 
design of the Rebel authorities. Captain Wurtz told Davis in 
my hearing: "Send the soldiers down to me; I can kill more 
than Bob Lee can." The intentional alternative was, starva- 
tion, or enlist against the United States. Once Jefferson 
Davis, accompanied by General Winder, visited the prisoners 
to get them to become Rebel soldiers, and be released. They 
appealed to me, in my emaciated condition, to organize a regi- 
ment out of my comrades, have the command and prospective 
promotion in the (Confederate Army. To this offer I replied 
that I prefer death to dishonor, and would sooner perish by 
starvation than bear arms against the stars and stripes of the 
United States. Mr. Davis said : "All right; you will die then!" 
—for he preferred we should all starve to death, rather than 
live to fight against the Confederate States ! Thus my father's 
old war comrades closed abruptly the conference. We all suf- 
fered indescribable hunger, heart-ache, bodily discomfort from 
vermiae, and paiu consequent upon the famine and cruelties 



20 JEFFERSON 



DAVIS, 



purposely imposed; in the midst of which the alternative urged 
upon us to become rebels was the most horrible and tantalizing. 

James H. Hopkins. 
Duly certified and sworn to before David Keith, Notary 
Public, Denver, January 29, 1890. 

I do not know how mythical Mephistopheles and 
his Satanic Majesty are, but Jefferson Davis was 
real, and the chietiy responsible personage at Ander- 
sonville, then; he threw open, also, the prison gates to 
the one hundred and eighty thousand patriot pris- 
oners, on the terms above given. But with the slow 
tortures to death by starvation staring them in the 
face, not two per cent of the heroic martyrs accepted 
the dastardly and diabolical offer. O, my country- 
men, was there ever before such courage and love for 
your country! But it was worthy of it! or it would 
not have such sons that could so suffer! 

Though Captain Wurtz was subsequently hanged 
for murders in the first degree on testimony of the 
Confederate guards and surgeons, he said to me just 
before his execution: "Sir, I was obeying orders." 
And I believed him. 

Jefferson Davis returned to Richmond, and while 
the prison was still ruled with such relentless rigor 
that the starving patriots picked even the kernels of 
corn from the offal of the mules kept busy in carting 
away the dead to their trenches, he issued (Octo- 
ber 26, 1864) this "Proclamation of Thanksgiving" 
which I hold in my hand and in which he said: 
"Let us in temples and in field unite our voices in 
recognizing with adoring gratitude the manifesta- 
tions of God's protecting care — in the fruitfulness 
until ivhich our land has been blessed! — and (further) 
let us not forget that many of our best and bravest 
have fallen in battle and that many others are still 
held in foreign prisons." — ^''Foreign prisons!" Alas! 
what narrow, insane and needless alienation f The 
largest, finest, most enlightened, most historic and 
most happy part of his native land, that educated, 
honored, loved him, that part containing Princeton, 
Trenton, Saratoga, Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown 
Point, Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill — all cast 
off forever, to be henceforth to him as a foreign 
country! And while his captured troops are treated 
kindly as erring fellow countrymen and conferred 
with as kindred, so that those in Fort Warren in full 



THE CHIEF OF THE REBELLION. 21 

view from my Boston window, even boasted that they 
"fared sumptuously every day," with Jefferson Davis' 
colleague one of the witnesses, 02ir troops in Jiis 
prison were perishing with hunger, in regions which 
they knew belonged still to their own indivisible Re- 
public ! — But enough of this ! It is too bitter to remem- 
ber! God knows I wish to forgive and forget it, and 
would not have spoken unless forced by denials of the 
facts to expose them. Was there ever such forbear- 
ance and forgiveness as that shown after the war by 
the Federal Government, which said to the insur- 
gents, like Joseph to his brethren who had sold him to 
bondage and to prison: "Fear not ye: ye meant for 
evil what God meant for good, as it is at this day, to 
bless many peoples!" 

Leaving Redpath's second personage for his eulo- 
gists to portray according to their pleasure, I wnll draw 
in conclusion a few inferences from the facts already 
before us — which are stubborn things and w^ill remain 
in history forever established. "The War of the 
Rebellion" was for slaver^y ; and yet it resulted in 
the abolition of slavery forever. Jefferson Davis was 
the indispensable cause and Commander-in-Chief of 
that Rebellion, and was by far, as I believe, the 
ablest of all the Secession Leaders and Generals; 
and yet he was so greatly changed that he chose at 
last as his helper and bosom adviser the Biogra- 
pher of John Brown, the mystical sign of the slaves' 
manumission. The great Republic that Davis sought 
to destroy by division, remains more consolidated and 
merciful than ever, so that he lived on unmolested in 
his Family Mansion, most "Beautiful to Behold," and 
possessed to the last of his countless unconfiscated 
acres. He was also protected in every possible enjoy- 
ment, reflecting the "beneficence, the light and the 
sweetness" of our free institutions in his counten- 
ance, and finally died in peace among his own wor- 
shiping people. Was there ever given to man before 
so gracious a Government, through which God 
revealed so much of his long suffering w4th men, and 
His sovereignty of wisdom, of justice, and goodness, 
and mercy? As the past, present and future move 
on in one bright and overwhelming panorama before 
me, I see His Sovereign Majesty serenely seated 
above it all; in every stormy war I understand the 



22 JEFF^SON DAVIS. 

voice of His thunder, and on the late dark retiring 
cloud that still reverberates, I behold the bow of 
hope hung up in the light of His countenance, and I 
dare believe our beloved land shall now remain peace- 
ful, united, prosperous, and never again suffer from a 
bloody deluge. To this end, let the warnings of his- 
tory have always a reverent hearing, and the rising 
generations pay due heed to the judgments of 
Jehovah. 

Jefferson Davis is dead! I see his monument 
rising before the American people. It is the most 
imposing that chivalry, art, wealth and affection can 
furnish. It bears not merely the name, like those of 
Mount Vernon, nor is it a simple shaft, like the loftiest 
cenotaph the sun ever illumined, in honor of the 
Father of his Country; but it is heavily inscribed 
with both elegy and eulogy, expressing only what his 
friends would hand down to the future. But human- 
ity looks on and listens in silence and preserves its 
own opinion — the enduring conviction of the country 
saved through so great conflict and suffering; and 
the Common Sense of Mankind will continually come 
along and read between the lines the epitaph as it 
should have been written. And when the relentless 
fingers of Time shall have rubbed out every inscrip- 
tion, and his mighty hand shall have thrown down 
the monument, there will still be written in history 
and upon the heart and memory of humanity, also, 
this simple, solemn memorial, more enduring than 
Time, and more eloquent than eulogy: Wrong — 
though overruled and forgiven — is w^rong forever. 
Jefferson Davis betrayed, at home and abroad, the 
unity, life and glory of his country that bore and 
blessed him; he revolted from the best Government 
ever given to humanity and rebelled against its most 
benign ruler, Abraham Lincoln, and did this in 
behalf of human bondage, nor retracted his errors; 
and so, for the warning of the future, let there stand 
by the name of Jefferson Davis this indellible stigma: 
Both Traitor and Rebel! 

March 1, 1890. T. N. Haskell. 



BfiliEi'il and the Ballot, 



AS SEEN IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES.* 



The history of bribery reaches far back, and the 
testimony against it has been incessant and eloquent. 
Laws, human and divine, have been declared and 
executed against it, and the moral sense of mankind 
seems to loathe it as much as to look upon a devilish 
serpent. The Hebrew Commonwealth became a 
kingdom because the people hated the bribery of its 
judges, and Judas hanged himself for his betrayal of 
Jesus for $15. My subject is therefore repellant, 
but too important and perilous to be left without the 
most unflinching and frequent exposure to the public 
gaze and reprobation; for its worst effects are against 
our most sacred franchises, and when aimed at 
debasing American suffrage, the source of our Gov- 
ernment, it is the unpardonable sin that should never 
be forgiven nor forgotten. 

The word bribe— of both Gallic and Gaelic origin, 
meaning tirst in French, "a morsel of bread," as that 
for which "Esau sold his birthright" — has come to 
mean any material inducement offered to impair ones 
moral judgments. In Persian the word is akin to 
para, a piece of money; and so that is now oftenest 
used in bribery, but not always. Anything by which 
men are hired to do wrong is and always was a bribe, 
and its penalties have ever been severe. Eliphaz 
the Temanite, said to Job, the Emir of Uz and earli- 
est of known authors, as if to reprove him with some 
then ancient proverb: "Deceitful men shall be 
desolate 'and the tabernacles of bribery' shall be 
destroyed." Near the same time Ruel Jethro, the 
father of j,urisprudence, said to Moses, the founder of 
the Jewisli Commonwealth: "Thou shalt provide 

* See The Commonwealth, September, 1890. 



Z ANCIENT AND MODERN. 

out of all the people able men, such as fear God, mea 
of truth, hating bribery and covetousness, and place 
such as rulers over the people at all seasons," adding: 
"If thou shalt do this and God command thee so, 
then shalt thou endure and all this people go on their 
way in peace." In the days of the Hebrew Judges, 
the divine sentences against Eli and Samuel's sons for 
their bribes and sensuality were such as made "the 
people's ears to tingle." David, the most heroic and 
devout of the Hebrew psalmists and kings, exclaimed: 
"Let me not abide with wicked men 'in whose hands 
is mischief and their right hand is full of bribes.' " 
And Isaiah, the sublimest of their poet seers, said: 
"He that despiseth the gain of oppression and shak- 
eth his hands from holding of bribes shall dwell 
on high, his place of defense shall be the munitions 
of rocks, his bread shall be given him, and his water 
shall be secure" — in other words, he shall be safe, all 
his wants supplied and he shall be exalted among 
men. Centuries later, when Judaism was transferred 
among the followers of Jesus, and Simon Magus 
would bribe even God and the chief of His Apostles, 
Saint Peter said to him: "Thy money perish with 
thee!" And Saint Paul exclaimed to a similar charac- 
ter: "O, full of subtlety and all mischief, thou child 
of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt 
thou not cease to pervert the right ways!" 

Ancient Pagans often proclaimed against bribery 
in politics. A few "liberal" excerps from Greek and 
Latin authors will illustrate this. Demosthenes, in 
one of his patriotic orations, said: "When a bribe is 
cast into one scale it then preponderates and forces 
down the judgment with it; so that it is not possible 
that a person thus influenced can ever offer to his 
country good service. For these reasons our fathers 
thought themselves bound to look with deep concern 
upon the introduction of bribery into Peloponnesus, 
and proceeded v/ith such severity against all they 
could detect in it as to raise monuments to their 
crimes." He probably here refers to a brazen column 
then standing in a public place in Athens, and bear- 
ing this inscription: "Let Arthmius, of Zelia, the 
son of Pathonax, be accounted infamous, because he 
first brought gold (as bribes) from Media into the 
Peloponnesus." Again Demosthenes says, as if in 



BRIBERY AND THE BALLOT. 3 

despair: "Of all the popular constitutions of the 
Grecian States I do not know if there be one left now 
that is firmly established; for when the men admin- 
istering their affairs would bribe thos9 capable of 
selling their integrity, they have always a foreign 
potentate ready to furnish money for the purpose." 

Of this King Philip himself boasted, saying, in 
his famous letter to the Athenians, concerning the 
Greeks that were crying out against him: "I could 
easily have silenced with a little gold their clamors 
and changed them to praises. But I should blush to 
purchase your favor through such wretches." 

[This reminds me of the mercenary motives of the 
journalists of England who were bribed against us a 
few years since in our war time. The American 
press now-a-days is also sometimes purchased in its 
opinions. It was not long ago a New York editor 
said to a convention of journalists: "I am paid so 
much a month for keeping an honest opinion out of 
my paper. Others of you are paid like salaries for 
doing the same thing. We are the mere tools of rich 
men behind the scenes." For reasons of this sort I 
suspect that whole fonts of subsidized type in Colo- 
rado may be set up against the right of this appeal, 
with no power of hired type or pen or tongue to turn 
their tide of abuse away; yet it were better to avert 
the evils of this corroding avarice from our country 
than avoid any personal discomfort by neglecting a 
plain public duty.] 

The further appeals of Demosthenes against brib- 
ery and the probable fact he too was afterwards 
himself corrupted, enhance our duty to be courage- 
ously and invincibly faithful, for his words on this 
subject are still further intensely admonitory, and his 
subsequent sufferings from compunction, or public 
suspicion, were fearful. As he watched the moral 
decline of his country, he said with increasing sever- 
ity and sadness: "The noblest principles of the past 
are being so subjected to the power of gold that such 
things appear as affect the very safety and vitality of 
Greece. What are they? Envy, when a man has 
received a bribe; laughter if he confesses it; pardon 
if he be convicted; resentment at being accused, and 
all the other outcome of corruption." How like is 
this to the laughing countenance and unlawful 



shielding of modern frauds and political intrigue! 

But the wise old patriot waxes yet warmer and 
exclaims: "I call heaven and earth to witness there 
are those among us who do not blush to live for 
Philip; r/ho have not sense enough to see they are 
selling themselves and their country for a miserable 
pittance. * * Our army, our navy, our reve- 
nues, all things that are esteemed the life, security 
and strength of the State, have lost their efficacy by 
means of these traffickers. Formerly to be guilty of 
such practices was accounted a crime of the blackest 
kind which called for all the severity of public justice, 
but now our National interests are exposed for sale 
as if in a market. Even the emoluments of these 
offenders are influencing others to aspire after public 
office solely for the display of such silly ostentation. 
* * In earlier days the private habitations of 
the men of eminence w^ere so modest, so consonant 
with the equality and genius of our Constitution, 
that the house of Themistocles, of Cimon, of Aris- 
tides, Miltiades, or any of these illustrious person- 
ages, was not distinguished by the least mark of 
grandeur. But now some of the men who have con- 
ducted our state affairs have built houses not only 
more magnificent than those of our wealthy citizens, 
but even superior to our public edifices; others have 
purchased and improved an extent of land beyond all 
that their former dreams of wealth could have pre- 
sented to their fancy. O my countrymen!" he 
exclaims, "My countrymen ! it is wrong, it is shame- 
ful to desert the ranks of noble mindedness in which 
our ancestors have placed us!" 

It w^as thus that most eloquent of ancient orators 
appealed to his own jjeople against the growing 
power of avarice and civil corruption. It is 
exceeding sad to see how at last he too was seduced 
by this subtle and subversive sin against which 
he had breathed his severest invectives. Well 
did Aeschenes, in his oration against Demosthenes' 
ambition for repeated public honors, say: "It is the 
perfection of the statesman to possess that goodness 
of mind which may ever direct him to the most salu- 
tory measures, together with that skill and power of 
utterance which may effectually commend them to 
his hearers; yet, of the two, integrity is to be pre- 



BRIBERY AND THE BALLOT. O 

ferred to eloquence.^^ Demosthenes' oratory was of 
small account when he too sold the safety of his 
country, or fell at least under the popular suspicion 
that he was not after all supremely devoted to the 
public welfare. 

Yes, Demosthenes, even, was brought to trial for 
the offense of bribery. He was charged with having 
been hired not to appear against one Harpalus, a 
wealthy refugee from the house of Alexander, thereby 
endangering the peace and safety of the Greek 
Republic. Dinarchus, his accuser, said to the 
Athenian Archons: "You have condemned Timo- 
theus, the son of Conon, to a fine of a hundred talents 
because he had confessed receiving bribes from the 
Rhodians; and should not Demosthenes, a much 
more distinguished person, be punished according to 
his rank, for having accepted a costly vase and ten 
talents from Harpalus, and thus manifest to the world 
a just sentiment toward those who are bribed against 
the public safety?" He further says: "In the case of 
bribery two different punishments are prescribed. 
The first is death, that the fate of the offender may 
deter others from following his example. The second 
is ten fold the bribe received, that others may dread 
being disappointed in their sordid expectations." 

Though Demosthenes declared his innocence, and 
his plea of ill health might have excused his not 
appearing to prosecute Harpalus, if the court had 
believed him, yet the presumption appeared to be so 
strong against him that the Areopagus sentenced 
him to prison and to pay the State a fine of fifty 
talents. He escaped into exile, and as he looked 
toward Athens he wept and warned all young men 
who came near him against the danger and guilt of 
corruption in politics. 

Bribery grew until it had ruined both Greece and 
Rome. The oracle of the early Pythian Apollo said: 
"Nothing but avarice can conquer Sparta." And it 
was indeed bribery that did it. Caius the Samnite 
said: "When the Romans begin to take bribes there 
will soon be an end to their flourishing Empire." In 
accordance with this prediction Cicero ascribed the 
ruin of the Roman Republic to the moral and social 
degeneracy of her people, particularly specifying 
avarice conducing to bribery as the vice most dan- 



6 ANCIENT AND MODERN. 

gerous and destructive. Historic facts confirm the 
philosophy of these forebodings. The Roman Sena- 
tors and Consuls were often suspected of being pur- 
chased. The Emperors who followed were full of 
corruption. Caesar gave a pearl worth two hundred 
thousand dollars to Servilia to buy the favor of her 
son Brutus, and paid three hundred thousand dollars 
to bribe the consul Paulas. Crassus gave many 
bribes and large ones. Antony squandered millions 
in like manner. Caligula wasted in a year one hun- 
dred and twenty million dollars that Tiberius had 
left him, and Seneca says "he was born to show the 
world what mischief may be done by the concurrence 
of great wealth and great wickedness;" that "he 
spent fifty thousand dollars on a single dinner, and 
divided his life betwixt an anxious conscience and 
a nauseous stomach." Jugurtha bribed commis- 
sioners sent by the Senate to save the life of his 
nephew, Adhermal, but he murdered him, never- 
theless, and then bribed even the Senate; and when 
the Tribune Memmius exposed his bribery and he 
was banished, he went his way, saying: "O venal 
city! Thou shalt soon perish if I can find a pur- 
chaser!" 

Seneca assures us there was so much popular and 
official debasement in his time, that "it became dan- 
gerous to be honest and only profitable to be vicious; 
vice itself was preferred and commended; all inso- 
lence became exemplary and lawful and people took 
malevolent comfort in the number of the wicked." 
"Men rejoiced," he said, "in uncleanness, theft, and 
ambition, and even valued themselves on their excel- 
lency in ill-doing." He also infers that "when the 
strife is thus, who shall be most profane and impious, 
people will have every day less shame and worse 
passions. Sobriety and conscience will become fool- 
ish and scandalous till it is half the relish of their 
lusts that their sins are committed in the face of the 
sun. Innocency is not only rare but lost, and man- 
kind enters into a confederacy against virtue, to say 
nothing of intestine strifes, fathers and sons in league 
one against another, poisoned fountains, troops in 
search of the proscribed and banished, rape and 
adultery authorized, public perjuries and frauds, a 
violation of common faith and all the bonds of 



BRIBERY AND THE BALLOT. i 

human society cancelled." "It seems an idle things," 
he suggests, "to think of preserving such a people, 
who find both advantage and honor in corruption." 
"Who," he asks, "would have imagined that Clodius 
should have come off by bribery from debauching 
the wife of Caesar and profaning the vows that are 
for the very safety of society?" "But he did bribe 
even the judges," says Seneca, "not only with money 
but by pandering to their very worst passions and 
vices." In the courts of justice and the canvass for 
office, he said: "He that gives most carries his 
cause. All vices gain upon us by the promise of 
reward; avarice promises money; ambition, prefer- 
ment. Contempt of poverty in others, the fear of it 
in ourselves, unmerciful oppressions and mercenary 
magistrates are the common grievances of a cor- 
rupted government." 

Thus, too, does Seneca follow Demosthenes and 
Cicero to decry against the avaricious degeneracy of 
the Greek and Roman people, which w^as in sickening 
contrast with the elder Scipios' conscif^nce, who could 
not be bribed against his country by the offer to 
bring back to him his only son even, from captivity. 
From the testimony of such patriot sages we see how 
avarice and ambition for office really ruined the 
Roman Empire and Republic, as it had Sparta and 
Attica. The Roman degeneracy continued till the 
Praetorians actually sold the throne to the highest 
bidder! 

But let us here conclude our free translations 
from the old foreign classics with these more cheering 
and ennobling extracts. "A good man," says Seneca, 
"is influenced of God and has a kind of divinity within 
him. It was so Cato waged war with the wicked 
customs of Rome and Scipio with her enemies, and 
bating even the better consciousness of virtue, who 
would not, after all, rather be an honest man for the 
sake of the nobler approbation of the good and wise 
in all ages; for you shall find virtue in the temple, in 
the field, or upon the walls, covered with dust and 
blood in the defense of the public, and its deeds 
are immortal, while the victims of avarice are 
found sneaking in the stews and sweating their lives 
away under the weight of their own vices." With a 
noble complaisance he suggests that his countrymen 



8 ANCIENT AND MODERN. 

should take pattern from the testimony of a good 
conscience and be able to say: "I have lived for my 
country and my kind. Though under Caligula I 
saw such cruelties that to be killed outright was 
accounted a mercy, yet I persisted in my integrity 
and showed that I was willing and ready more than 
to die for it. My mind was never corrupted by bribes, 
and when the honor of avarice was highest I laid 
not my hand upon any unlawful gain or fruit of 
injustice," — Such semi-inspired sentiments as these 
against avarice and bribery, strange as it may seem, 
had little power to save the liberties of the Greek 
and Roman people; and even these classic authors 
themselves had serious defects contrary to our Chris- 
tian system, so that Bishop Hopkins' words in his 
American Citizen, are worthy of serious attention, 
where he says: "The only basis of safety in the use 
of our universal suffrage is the virtue and intelligence 
of our people united in support of the Constitution 
and the laws under the sanctions of the Christian 
religion," 

But bribery corruption has been brought into 
Christendom also. Judas, one of the Twelve, 
betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, but in 
his compunction cast down his money and decently 
hung himself. Many others in high offices have been 
brought to grief by bribery, and, by their punish- 
ments, made some amends for the bane of their bad 
example. In England bribery appeard early, but it 
has been bravely met several times in Great Britain, 
and never more so than in the case of Sir Francis 
Bacon, the accomplished viscount of Saint Albans, 
As keeper of the Seal and High Chancellor of Eng- 
land, he was charged before the House of Lords with 
having received money for grants of offices and privi- 
leges under the Seal of the State. He confessed his 
sin and left his sentence to the ^^^nty of his peers;" 
and notwithstanding his distinguished service to his 
country and mankind, as a man of letters and culture, 
a philosopher, and statesman of the highest offices 
and standing, admired of the Court and a favorite of 
the Crown, he was sentenced to a fine of two hun- 
dred thousand dollars, imprisonment during the 
King's pleasure, and to be forever disqualitied for 
office, sit in Parliament or to appear within the verge 



BKIBERY AND THE BALLOT. V 

of the Court. Such an "exemplary" punishment, 
severe as it was, has been ever since useful. 

Near a century later the subtle vice of bribery was 
again so much in vogue in England, that Sir Robert 
Walpole used to say: "All men have their price." 
This led to his being watched with suspicion lest he 
should put his mean motto into practice, and he was 
indeed soon indirectly detected, tried, convicted and 
sentenced to imprisonment and line, after the manner 
of Sir Francis Bacon before him; but party feeling 
made his punishment appear so much like persecu- 
tion that he was afterwards restored to some import- 
ant public positions and appeared penitent and par- 
tially honored and useful. The people of Great 
Britain and America will never cease to be warned 
by the sentences against Bacon and Walpole. 

The laws against bribery in Great Britain aud 
America are similar. In the United States there are 
perhaps more specific statutes than in England 
against pohtical corruption, because our Government 
all rises from suffrage and rests upon it, and if that 
be undermined and corrupted the whole superstruc- 
ture is imperiled; yet in defiance of law and regard- 
less of danger, there have been late conspicuous 
efforts at bribery tending to break down and destroy 
the legitimacy of even the National election. The 
forged "Morey letter" to defeat Garfield in 1880, is an 
illustration of political dishonor in appealing to preju- 
dice and mercenary passion, and it deprived the 
incoming President of the electoral votes on the 
Pacific coast. Had the elections elsewhere been 
close it would have founded the executive Govern- 
ment of the whole Nation for the next four years 
upon that one act of felony. The undeniable dis- 
patches sent in 1876, from Oregon and elsewhere in 
cipher, should never be forgotten nor easily forgiven 
by patriots of any party. 

One who buys his way into office must be unfitted 
for public service by that very fact. Could he be a 
desirable President who would buy for himself the 
Presidency? Mark what manhood must be bartered 
away on both sides. Consider the divine and human 
barriers that must be broken down. What a debas- 
ing course of education has bribery, even in our 
country. Buying of primary votes, bribing canvass- 



10 ANCIENT AND MODERN. 

ing boards to bring in false returns, "purchasing one 
elector" when one vote may turn the presidential 
scale, and every step in this climax of stupendous 
frauds violates some clear and virtuous statute. 

Our State and National laws are all now well 
established against every form of political corruption, 
and he seems hardened indeed and hopeless who 
would defy them. I place here two regular statutes; 
please read them carefully and see with what care 
also they were enacted. The laws of Colorado declare: 
"If any person shall, by bribery, menace, or other 
corrupt means or device whatever, either directly or 
indirectly attempt to influence any voter of this 
State in giving his ballot, or deter him from giving 
the same, or disturb or hinder him in the free exer- 
cise of the right of suffrage at any election in this 
State at which he is entitled to vote, or shall fraudu- 
lently change or alter a ballot or cause any other 
deceit to be practiced with intent fraudulently to 
induce such elector to deposit the same as his vote, 
and thereby have the same thrown out and not 
counted, every person so offending shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine, not 
exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars, or imprison- 
ment not more than six months." False testimony 
of voters under oath is a penitentiary offense also. 

The Election laws of the United States are still 
more significant and severe: "Any member of either 
House of Congress who asks or accepts or receives 
any money, or any promise, contract or understand- 
ing, obligation, gratuity or security for payment of 
money, or for the delivery or conveyance of anything 
of value, either before or after he has been qualified, 
or has taken his seat as such member, with intent to 
have his vote or decision on any question, matter, 
cause, or proceeding which may be at any time 
pending in either House or before any committee 
thereof, influenced thereby, shall be punished by a 
fine not more than three times the amount asked, 
accepted or received, and by imprisonment not more 
than three years." 

"Any Judge of the United States, who in any 
way receives or accepts any sum of money or other 
bribe, present or reward with intent to be influenced 
thereby in any opinion, judgment or cause depending 



BRIBERY AND THE BALLOT. 11 

before him, shall be fined and imprisoned at the dis- 
cretion of the Court, and shall be forever disqualified 
to hold any office of honor, trust or profit under the 
United States." 

There are also corresponding laws punishing with 
like severity any persons offering directly or indi- 
rectly to bribe a Judge or a member of Congress, or 
an executive or revenue officer of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. Members of Congress may not officiate in 
matters of financial interest to themselves, lest they 
be influenced thereby not to legislate solely for the 
public or general welfare. The ethical reasons for all 
these careful regulations are supreme and usually 
self-evident. No person can ignore them and be 
worthy of public trusts or suitably patriotic. 

My poor father said to me a few hours before he 
died: "My son, all I have to leave you is my untar 
nished name, your time when you shall be sixteen, and 
your right to vote when you are one and twenty," 
and to this day I am proud of the inheritance. But 
that name which I have not dishonored, that time 
which I improved in self-education and the service of 
my country, and that right of suffrage which cost blood 
and treasure and the struggle of ages, are of little 
avail to me if I see inferior men securing by fraud 
their nominations to office, and when I go to the polls 
find fifty persons there before me each paid to 
neutralize my ballot. 

Both Houses of Congress should be so incorrupti- 
ble that any man of ordinary sense and moral 
sensibility should be intensely uneasy in a seat to 
which he was elevated by a fraudulent ambition. 

A good conscience toward suffrage helps to see the 
hatef ulness of the unholy ambition that has always 
been so hurtful to society. The aspiration to be true 
and useful is the essential honor. That goodness of 
mind that would guide to beneficent measures, that 
eloquence that is able to command them and that in- 
tegrity of character which Aeschenes applauded, have 
abounded in the American Congress, the Courts and 
the Executive Mansion, and one can hardly think of 
the great men who have sat in those seats and left in 
the House and the Senate, upon the Supreme Bench 
and in the White House their halo of glory, without 
emulation and wishing to be like them — and such is 



12 ANCIENT AND MODERN. 

a laudable ambition. But, O how sinister, how nig- 
gardly selfish must be the narrow souls that would 
offer to buy of an American citizen his suffrage! 
The wonder is that any briber of a ballot should ever 
wish or expect the world's approbation, or should 
dare undertake the duties of an elective office. 

I have now expressed my reprobation of the 
great reproach and evil brought upon the country 
by the bribery of the ballot. If I have spoken 
severely it has been because there seemed to be special 
need of severity. It has certainly been more in sor- 
row than in censure! I have felt and written as a 
patriot, not as a partisan; have sought the public 
good, not my personal gratification. I have never 
willingly put a thorn on any man's pillow. It has 
given me pain to expose and prosecute my familiar 
neighbors and particular congenial friends. But 
franchise is more than friendship; it is the life of the 
Nation. Were my dearest brother in this great 
wrong, I would defend the right, hit whom I might. 
With this feeling I appeal to my countrymen, to the 
just people of Colorado and to all General Assem- 
blies to contest every inch of ground with the corrup- 
tors of the sacred source of our civil power, and let 
the right prevail and the future reward our fidelity. 

The completest remain of antiquity is the Temple 
of Theseus at Athens. There it has stood in solitary 
grandeur more than twenty centuries as his monu- 
ment — not because he was an Argonaut, not because 
he slew wild bulls, boars and giants, killed even the 
monster of Crete to whose devouring maw Athens 
had given yearly seven youths and as many young 
maidens, not even because he had consolidated his 
country and conquered his foes; but because he 
refused to be her king and gave her a free constitu- 
tion and the right of suffrage. Let those who sym- 
pathize with these sentiments put on their virtuous 
armour and defend them with valor. Let no man 
despise his birthright. The past with all its sacri- 
fices and examples, the Present with all its obliga- 
tions, the Future with all its hopes, unite to say: 
Let every public servant do his duty, and every 
citizen stand sentry; then will our suffrage be safe, 
and saved the Great American Republic. 



British Reviews of Haskell's Books. 

The Rev. Fergus I-'ergiison, D. I)., of Glasgow, a 
noted Scotch author and criiic, iu a three column "Re- 
view of Haskell's Konkaput and Occasional Poems," 
says: "They are most entertaining and useful vol- 
umes. The romance entitled 'Young Konkaput, the 
King of Utes,' begins with an exciting 'Indian he- 
gend of Twin Likes,' and has its principal scenes laid 
among the Rocky Mountains. Although professedly 
a W'Ork of fiction, it may be cons dered as an imagin- 
ary embellishment and poetical exaggerations of facts 
which really were or might there have been. Its heroine, 
Susan, or Shawsheen, is a real personage, like Pocha- 
hontas, and the hero is the supposed son of a famous 
Sachem, Colorado I., whose twiti sisters were seized 
by invading savages and driven with their captors 
into the 'Upper Twinlake' and drowned. (An excel- 
lent frontispiece engraving represents this scene.) 
In this beautiful region 'King Konkaput' was born, 
a'ld in the neighboring 'South Park,' he met and 
woed his dusky maid, whom he meant to make the 
Queen of Utes, when his mother, Piesse, shall have 
passed away. He is, however, tempted to enter upon 
a long trapping and hunting expedition, and never 
sees either of them again; for during his absence an 
Indian war broke out, his betrothed, Shawsheen, is 
carried away captive, and both his parents perished. 

"After bis return, the principal part of this roman- 
tic poem is occupied with Konkaput's wanderings 
among both savages and civilized people to find the 
captive squaw. He hears that she had been rescued 
by the whites from the burning stake and taken to the 
Pacific Coast; but there he is told she was carried East 
to be educated. Thither he goes and gets an education 



B REVIEWS. 

himself, but nowhere has any trace of his prospective 
queen. As Longfellow's Evangeline searched for 
Gabriel, so young Konkaput has wandered from 
tribe to tribe and sea to sea without finding the object 
of his search; but in his lonely jouvneyings he sur- 
veyed the whole Indian subject and sets it forth 
'In thoughts that breathe and words that burn.' 

"At length he hastens back again to his tribe to 
help them into civilized life, and there learns that 
Shawsheen was restored to the Utes, and, supposing 
he was dead, has married a famous medicine man, 
and so can never be his wife. This makes him all the 
more devoted to his ennobling mission to raise sav- 
ages into saints and citizens. But alas! like our Lord, 
'became unto his own and his own received him not!^ 
Shawsheen's brother, Arrow, had usurped the head- 
ship of the Utes and connives at Konkaput's death, 
but finally felt such compunction for this murder, 
heightened by certain papers found on the martyr's 
person (which a white man interpreted) that he often 
visits the dead king's grave to confess this sin, and 
enters even upon the very course of reform among 
his people which the enlightened Konkaput had 
planned. 

"Such," says the Scotch reviewer, "is an outline of 
the story that Professor Haskell tells in such a way as 
to make it very interesting and beneficial, too. There 
is a fine breeziness about the book, as if it breathed 
forth constantly the mountain air of freedom. The 
author everywhere evinces sympathy for the oppressed 
and weak of every race, and admiration for all liber- 
ators, of whatever clime; still he is not blind to the 
faults of the American aborigines, whom he repre- 
sents as being often savage in their cruelty, as seen 
in The ' Key to Konkaput, or, The Fate of the Phil- 
anthropic Meeker Family.' " 



REVIEWS. C 

" We are ver}- uuwilling," continues the critic, "to 
find fault with so interesting and vahiable a poem, 
but we venture a suggestion: There are five pages — 
(42—47) written in the measure of Longfellow's 'Hia- 
watha,' which are so admirably expressed that we 
fancy it would have been a decided improvement if 
the whole poem had been in that r3;thm, instead of 
what musicians call the 'long metre' of Scott's poet- 
ical works. It could have been, even, in the measure 
of Evangeline and retained its original and unique 
character. Either of Longfellow's popular measures 
would have fitted the Legend of Konkaput well, and 
still left the author the imitator of none but himself. 
Homer did not copy Hesiod though both wrote hexa- 
meters, and no style is any one man's exclusively. 

"This criticism does not, of course, apply to the 
odes and addresses which the author, every here and 
there, puts in the lips of his principal characters. 
Thus ' Konkaput's Apostrophe Upon Pike's Peak ' 
(p. 177), in the French Alexandrine, is truly sub- 
lime, and we are sure our readers will like the young 
king's hymn upon 'The Mount of the Ploly Cross,' 
beginning with this heaven-born assertion, (p. 183) 
" The loftiest tiling in human thought 
Is God's redeeming love! " 

"As to Haskei.i.'s Domestic Poems, we should 
have mentioned sooner, that one attractive feature of 
these books is their admirable pictorial illustrations ; 
and here, after a modest, frank preface, which fully 
justifies the author's family feeling of friendship with 
liis readers, we have a fine cut, called ' Courting on 
Horseback,' in which the equestrians meet in a se- 
questered grove near the Andover lakes, and the like- 
ness and posture of Mrs. Haskell (Miss Edwards, 
then), are so very sweet and graceful that we do not 
wonder that the Professor fell in love with her. 



D Rs;viEws. 

"In another engraving the countenance of their 
dear daughter Florence, who died in Denver at the 
age of 14, and yet in what seems the maturity of 
womanhood, is so sedate and winning we do not won- 
der at the beautiful tribute to her memory, 'The Sec- 
ond Anniversary of Sorrow.' The other domestic 
pictures of both parents and children, and the types 
of w^omen and maidens and martyrs and Susan are 
delightfully apropos, suggestive and eloquent, while 
the rougher 'chalk sketches,' like Konkaput with his 
sledge drawn by jubilant deer, are delightful for chil. 
dren and inspiring to all. 

" 'Thp: Occasionai, Poems ' Foreign, Patriotic and 
Juvenile,' are also worthy of the beautifully printed 
book in which they are bound. We had no thought 
when we were once traveling in Palestine with Pro- 
fessor Haskell that he was writing a poem every day 
on passing scenes and events; but here the spontane- 
ous compositions are in terse and rythmical form upon 
topics of interest all the way from Egypt to Athens 
and the Alps, via Jerusalem, the Jordan, Damascus^ 
Smyrna, Mars Hill and Firenzi, or Florence on Arno's 
fair and classic banks, till finally on Switzerland's 
Alpine pinnacle be sings: 

" On the top of Mt. Rhighi this Fourth of July, 
Tlie year of our Lord eighteen sixty and two, 
I swear in Christ's name I were willing to die 
To make my dear country immortal and truel " 

"Soon after this consecration to his country's cause 
Mr. Haskell came to Scotland and here published in 
the Glasgozu Christian News an important Inter- 
national Letter upon ' The Origin, Issues and Pros- 
pective End of the Pro-Slavery War then Waging in 
the United States.' Opinions were much divided 
here then in regard to that war; but his instincts and 
predictions proved eventually to be correct ; for the 



REVIEWS. E 

Uuiou cause triumphed and the slaves became free. 
Subsequently Mr. Haskell was Professor of Logic, 
Literature and Political Economy in the University 
of Wisconsin, but moved to Denver, Colorado, in the 
hope to save the life of his child, the beautiful Flor- 
ence before described. We have occasionally ex- 
changed letters from afar, and will be glad to meet 
our old fellow-traveler again in the fields of poetry 
or prose, and if not once more in the Palestine of 
earth will greet yet again in the Paradise of heaven." 

ANOTHER BRITISH REVIEWER SAYS : 

"I have found much amusement and profit in 
reading ' King Konkaput and Other Poems,' by Pro- 
fessor Haskell of Denver. The first is a rythmical 
romance suggested by the terrible ' Meeker Massacre,' 
and seems to give the true solution of the vexed In- 
dian problem in the United States. Having glanced, 
here and there through these neatly bound volumes, 
I was struck with their unique, original and highly 
picturesque character. Perceiving some most beauti- 
ful poetic gems of the first water therein, I said to 
myself: Here I shall find real mental recreation and 
rest. 

"But after a little more desultory reading, I became 
so fascinated with Konkaput that I could not lay it 
down. Even my mea's seemed intruded upon me. 
Yes, 'Young Konkaput' is indeed a fascinating 
book, handsomely bound and elegantly illustrated. 
Its style is easy and perspicuous, rich in the sublime, 
flowing full of nature's charming scenes as tliey pass 
before the eyes like a panorama of the rock}^ crest of 
that great land, and each scene is photographed on 
the reader's mind by the pure and lucid style of the 
author. 

"It must enhance ths pleasure of tourists through 



F REVIEWS. 

the Rocky Mountain scenery to read Konkaput before 
starting on their t-rip. It would add good sauce to a 
rich feast. The rythmic and graphic style of this 
romance reminds one of Sir Walter Scott's Lady of 
the Ivake, though its tone and sentiments are purer 
and more ennobling. The lines are clearly drawn 
between savage and civilized Christian life. It is a 
book that is bound to live and become popular with 
lovers of uature and good poetr3\ While the whole 
book is a casket, still some of its gems are richer and 
more radiant than others. 

'■How simply beautiful are the four stanzas entitled 
'The Hol}'^ Cross, by Konkaput.' There is a preci- 
ous gem that ought to be set in letters of gold. The 
thoughts reach the infinite, while the words are so 
meek! What lofty inspiration is breathed forth, also, 
in that graphic piece, ' King Konkaput's Apostrophe 
Upon Pike's Peak.' Another brilliant gem is 'The 
Last Lone Indian's Soliloquy' by the Sunset Sea, page 
121, and Zinziba's last letter to Konkaput, page 201, is 
as compact heroism as can be conceived, while the 
< Paraphrase to Pushamata's Address to La Fayette' is 
even better than Chief Logan's Hebraic rj-thm, so 
famous for its eloquence. 

" 'HaskEI/L's Occasionai, Poems' are also refresh- 
ing to the mind and do it good like a medicine. In 
reading them, I experienced the truth of Dr. Carpen- 
ter's teaching in his mental physiology, concerning 
the mutual influence of the body and the mind. The 
humor of the ' Quack Doctor and his Hypocondriac 
Case,' the playfulness of the 'Boy's Visit to the 
Moon,' and the solemn beauty of the 'Seer-like 
Song of Sixty-One,' will suggest the pleasing variety 
that pervades all of Professor Haskell's books." 
Rev. Wm. Anderson, A. M. 

(Of Trinity College, Dublin.) 



REVIEWS. G 

OTHER TESTIMONIALS. 

TWO BOOKS THAT ARE BEAUTIES. 

"Collier & Clevelaud are publishing a new holiday 
issue of Haskell's Romance and Poems entitled 'The 
Legend of Twin Lakes— Konkaput and Key,' and 
'Occasional Poems at Home and Abroad.' These 
Vols. I. and II. are elegantly bound, gilt-edged and 
stamped for both shelf and center table. In matter 
and appearance they are twin beauties, and entitled to 
a place iu every household library in the land. The 
books contain also two British Reviews and other 
opinions of the press that show a high appreciation of 
them as standard works that are in the literature of 
America to live and hold an honored place." 

Colorado PatT'iot. 

"Haskell's beautiful poems have won much praise 
here and elsewhere for their author. Mrs. Condit 
(who is a reader of fine literary taste) pronounced 
Konkaput 'fascinating and masterly.' She read, then 
re-read, and loaned to our friends. 

" Prof. P. M. Condit, 
"(Supt. of Schools, Delta Co., Colo.)" 

"Thomas Nelson Haskell is one of the true poets. 
His Legend of Twin Lakes has not only poetic value, 
but its descriptions of natural scenery are excellent." 
— Milwaukee Herald, (German). 

" Mr. Haskell not only deals with the Indian 
Question, but touches alse our dut}^ to the Colored 
People of the South, and writes with special facility 
when dealing with western scenes and themes. His 
Occasional Poems have a marked variety and merit." 
— Ch icago In te rio r. 

" Of Haskell's Poems indicating high water mark, 
we single out the one 'On Leaving Jerico.' There 
can be no hesitation in ranking this with Ray 
Palmer's best." — Geo. McClurg in Pike's Peak Herald. 



H REVIEWS. 

" ' The vStor_v of Konkaput,' the King of Ute.^, and 
Shawsheen, his maiden Oueeti, is of thrilling interest 
and holds the reader's rapt attention from the open- 
ing verse to the closing line." — Hon. Arthur E. 
Pierce, in Denver Eye. 

" In Konkaput the author rises co unusual poetic 
altitudes, his plan is subtle and artisuc, atid the en- 
thusiast ever prevails throughout its fascinating 
pages." — A. Kanffuian in Conimonivsalth. 

KIXD ESTIMATE OF A COLORADO AUTHOR. 

"Hon. Charles Townsend of Ohio, in speaking of 
Western authorship, says: 'I read with great satisfaction 
Prof. Haskell's Review of Redpath's INIemories of 
Jefferson Davis. The arraignment of the great Con- 
federate leader's conduct is the essence of law and 
reason, so vigorously and clearly stated as to be 
unanswerable. I have never read an abler review.' 
This literary statesman also writes concerning " Has- 
kell's Legend of Tvvin Lakss:" 'I read Konkaput with 
intense pleasure. Sweet and pleasing is the current 
of the rythm, and elevating and instructive the lesson. 
vSo graceful, indeed, in manner that it carries the 
reader along on eas}' and noiseless wings. I would 
rather be the author of this poem than hold any place 
of official distinction within the reach of reasonable 
ambition. ' ' — Denver Republican. 

"Professor Haskell mailed to Mr, Gladstone a 
copy of his 'Young Konkaput, the King of Utes ' not 
expecting any notice of its reception, but the Grand 
Old Man sent a very cordial and grateful autograph 
acknowledgment and appreciation of the work, signed, 
' Your very faithful and obedient, Wiltjam E. Glad- 
stone." — Rocky Moiuitain News. 

For other "Opinions" of the book see notices in 
the back part. 



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